The Girl Who Found The Darkness
by JAHZYJAH
Summary: Juliette Stevenson leads a normal life. Well, as normal a life you can get when your best friend is kidnapped by your stalker. But when Juliette's stalker returns, what will happen? Who will save her? And can she find love in the darkest of all places: her mind? (Also on Wattpad and Quotev)
1. Prologue

** Prologue**

Look, I didn't sign up for this, ok? When I was a little kid, I didn't want to be a criminal. I never thought I could ever steal, and I definitely didn't think I could ever kill someone. But I guess dreams don't always come true. Maybe if I hadn't gone to that party, I wouldn't be here. I would've led a normal teenage life. But I guess that's not what God wanted for me. I might never know what he wanted. All I know is that this is my life, and I can't ever go back to who I was before. Not after what I've done. If only I could go back. If only….

But this is my life, and I can't change that. My life will never be the same as it was before. Life must change, and so must I. It's inevitable. Everything changes, and no one can control that. Maybe it was better this way, that all this happened. I always knew I couldn't lead a normal life, and this was just one possibility out of hundreds that could've happened. It could be worse. I could be dead on the side of the road, naked. But I'm not, and that's all that matters. I might die here, but if I do, I know I left my mark on this world. No one will ever forget me. My name is Juliette Stevenson, and I'm the girl who found the darkness.

_Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked,_

_Money don't grow on trees._

_I've got bills to pay, I've got mouths to feed,_

_And ain't nothing in this world's for free._

_Oh no, I can't slow down, I can't hold back, though you know I wish I could._

_Oh no there ain't no rest for the wicked,_

_Until we close our eyes for good._

Cage The Elephant, _Ain't No Rest For The Wicked_


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

I wake up to the sound of my phone vibrating, signaling I got a text message. I slowly open my eyes and check my clock. 10 AM. I groan. I hate getting up before noon, especially on Fridays in the middle of summer. School starts in less then a month, and I want to savor it while it lasts. I disgruntally turn my radio on to help me wake up and check my phone. One of my best friends, Alisa, had texted me.

_Hey girl! Just a reminder that my party starts at 6:30. Can't wait till then! _

–_Alisa_

I sigh. Alisa was having a sleepover party to celebrate the release of the _Divergent_ movie. All the girls were going to the sleepover, and then the next day we would meet up with some guy friends and watch the movie. I text Alisa back quickly.

_ Totally. So excited!_

_ -Juliette_

My name's Juliette Stevenson. I'm the craziest of our group of friends, once you get to know me. I'm really weird and loud, so people either love me or hate me. I don't care about anything that other people say about me, except my friends and family. This usually works out well with my friends, since they're really supportive of me. My family, on the other hand, not so much.

I pick out what to wear, just a simple graphic T-shirt and sweatpants. I'm not going anywhere in public until tomorrow, so why not? I take a long shower so my hair would be dry by the time I go to the party. And yes, my hair is so thick it takes a few hours to dry it. I let the water run down my body, cleaning off all of my worries and sorrows. I step out of the shower and change. I comb my short brown hair and go downstairs for breakfast. Captain Crunch, to be exact.

Just as I'm finishing my cereal, my older brother, Kevin, comes downstairs.

"Hey, sleepy head," I tease him as he gets out the frosted flakes.

"Just wait until you're in college and stay up until four in the morning." Kevin grumbles back.

"I already do that, silly. I'm a teenage girl, remember?" Kevin narrows his eyes.

"Are you sure? I thought you were an old man." He smiles and I smile back. We always tease each other back and forth like that.

I put my bowl in the dishwasher and walk back to my room. My room is a complete and utter mess. Like, I can't even see the floor anymore. I keep telling myself to clean my room. Sometimes, I get inspiration to clean my room, so I start organizing, and then three ours later I'm on the internet, so I get nothing done. Oh well. There's always next time.

I decide to go on the internet for a few hours instead of doing actual work. Eventually, I decide to pack for the sleepover. I pack some clothes, my sketch pad, my nook, and my journal. By now it's 6 PM. I walk downstairs and set my bag on the kitchen counter. All of a sudden, I don't feel very well. I don't necessarily feel physically sick. I just have this foreboding in my mind that something bad is going to happen. I sit on a kitchen chair unsteadily just as my dad comes upstairs from his man cave.

"Hey Juliette, ready to go?" He asks cheerfully.

"I don't know," I say unsteadily.

"I'm not feeling very well."

"You don't have to go if you don't want to, Juliette." I think about it for a second, then shake my head.

"I'm feeling better now. Let's go."

I wish I hadn't said that. Then my dad wouldn't of taken me to Alisa's house, and none of this would've ever happened. But I did, and then we went into my dad's car and drove to Alisa's house. Where all of this crap happened. Where my life changes forever.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

My dad drops me off at Alisa's house.

"Have fun, sweetie!" He calls after me as I walk down Alisa's driveway.

"You too!" I call back. Then he drives away, locking my fate forever.

I walk up to the front door and knock. But not four times, of course. I'm not insane. Alisa opens the door and smiles at me.

"Hey girl!" She says, our usual greeting to each other.

"Hey girl!" I answer back.

"Come on in, we're all in the kitchen." I follow Alisa into the kitchen to see Chloe, Karlie, Kenzey, and Kinzie. They're in the middle of a conversation about _Divergent._

"Tobias is so awesome." Chloe says, taking a bite out of her pizza.

"I know right?" Karlie responds.

"I've seen the movie already, and he's so hot! But they don't even put in Uriah!"

"Really? I love Uriah!"

"Me too! But the way they set it up, I was ok with it."

"I'm so excited for tomorrow!"

"It's going to be epic!"

We continue to talk about divergent, vines, and a bunch of other weird stuff. We eventually go up to Alisa's room and start playing Candor or Dauntless. Candor or Dauntless is basically truth or dare, but for fangirls.

"Juliette, Candor or Dauntless?" Alisa asks me.

"Candor." Everyone groans. Since I'm an extremely open person, they pretty much know everything about me, even my secrets. What am I saying? I don't have any secrets. If you're my friend, I tell you everything. I'm an open book.

"Hmmmmmmm….. Oh, I know!" Kinzie exclaims.

"What is you deepest, darkest secret that you have?"

_I hate myself, _I immediately think. _I don't want to live anymore. _But I can't tell them that. No one can ever know. If someone ever found out, they would act like I was a piece of china about to fall off the edge. They would treat me like I need help. Maybe I do need help. But the one thing I truly loathe is people treating me like I'm helpless.

Everyone stares at me as I rack my brain for something else to say.

"Well," I say, "in elementary school, I had a huge crush on Eric." Everyone gasps. Eric has been my best guy friend since preschool, and everyone knows it. We are inseparable. He's stayed with me through middle and high school, and that means a lot. He's my only friend I still have that was my friend in elementary school.

"Wow, Juliette, I guess we don't know everything about you," Alisa sneers. _And that's the way I want to keep it, _I think, glad they bought it. I mean, I didn't lie to them, but that's not that big. It's in the past now. After I have a crush on someone, I really don't care who knows about it. Like I said, I'm an open book.

After that, I only pick Dauntless (dare) so that wouldn't happen again. Most of the dares are to do something weird/embarrassing/strange at the movie tomorrow. I hope that no one will remember I have to hit on Andrew, one of the guys we're going to the movie with, in the morning. Eventually, we all got really tired and decided to go to sleep. And I'm glad we did, because that would be the best sleep I would get for a while.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

"Juliette! Juliette, wake up!" I hear someone yell whisper into my ear.

"What?" I say annoyedly. I'm never happy when someone wakes me up.

"Will you go to the bathroom with me? No one else will." I recognize the person's voice and groan.

"Kenzey, you have the bladder the size of a walnut."

"I know. Please?" Kenzey begs.

"Fine," I mutter. That's another thing about me. I have the hardest time saying no to people. It's hard to refuse even people I don't like. Curse you, kind heart!

"Let's get this over with."

Kenzey and I make our way downstairs and to the bathroom.

"Just wait outside the door, ok?" Kenzey says.

"Fine, whatever. It's not like I would go in there with you." I lean against the bathroom door and wait. After a few minutes, I get impatient. I'm a naturally impatient person. It runs in my family. I knock on the bathroom door, but there's no response.

"Kenzey, what are you doing? Hurry up!" I say, tapping my foot.

"Uh, Juliette? Can you get my purse upstairs? I need my, uh, girl stuff."

"Say no more. I'll be right back." I say. I quickly head upstairs to Alisa's room.

" Hey guys, do you know where Kenzey's bag is? She needs her s-"I'm cut off by a blood-curdling scream from downstairs. I immediately recognize the scream. It's Kenzey's scream.

Suddenly, she stops screaming, leaving the room dead silent. No one knows how to react. The silence is broken by a faint dripping sound.

_Drip._

_ Drip._

_ Drip._

Then, we hear footsteps. Footsteps coming up the stairs. All we can do is listen as the footsteps get closer and closer to Alisa's door, the steady rhythm of the dripping in the background. Eventually, the footsteps stop right outside Alisa's door. All is silent, besides the dripping sound. And then the door swings open.

At first, no one does anything. All I can think is _we're screwed._ Standing in the doorway is a guy in his early twenties with brown hair. Blood is splattered all over his shirt. He has this crazy look in his eye, and his smile was so big, it looked inhuman. But that's not the worst part. In his left hand, he had a large knife with blood on it. And in his right hand, he held Kenzey's decapitated head, frozen in a silent scream. After a few seconds of complete and utter silence, the man grabs Karlie, who is closest to the door, and slits her throat. That's when all hell breaks loose.

Karlie's lifeless body falls to the floor as the man lets go of her and grabs Kinzie. Chloe starts opening the window as Alisa grabs her baseball bat. And I'm still just standing there out of pure horror. Chloe finally gets the window open, and she screams at me to move, but I'm frozen. I can't move. I can't breathe. I can't think. All I can do is stare in terror as the man walks over Kinzie's and Karlie's bodies and advances towards me. He goes up right next to me and whispers in my ear.

"How are you, love? Miss me?"

That snaps me out of my shock and I pull away just as Alisa hits the man with her bat.

"Come on, you guys!" Chloe shouts at us as she climbs out of the window outside. I crawl out the window and unto the roof with Alisa right behind me. We run to the telephone pole a few feet away from the roof.

"We'll have to climb down." Chloe shouts. She climbs down quickly, me right behind her. Just as I'm reaching the ground, I hear a scream, and see the man has stabbed Alisa in the leg. Alisa screams again and hits the man and he falls down. She half climbs half jumps off of the pole and Chloe and I run over to her.

"Are you alright?" Chloe asks her.

"Peachy. We have to go, now. I only knocked him out."

"But where?" I ask. We look around. Alisa's house is kind of secluded from the rest of the town. The closest house from here is like 10 miles away.

"Well," Chloe says calmly, "I guess we have no choice but to hide in the forest until we can get a hold of someone." We run into the forest as fast as we possibly can.

While running, Alisa asks, "Who was that?" I look at her with sadness and say something I thought I'd never have to say again.

"That was David Nesnah, my stalker."


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

"What?!" Chloe and Alisa exclaim at the same time. They already knew the story.

5 years ago, when I was 12, I went to London with my friend Laura for summer vacation. While we were there, I met this guy named David in a coffee shop. He was 16 at the time. He was friendly and nice, and became friends. But for some reason, David thought we were in a 'relationship'. He wouldn't stop texting and calling me, and he even found out where Laura and I were staying. He had this delusion that we were madly in love, but Laura was keeping us from being together. One night, David snapped. He came to our hotel and kidnapped Laura. We called the police, but they couldn't find David or Laura.

Finally, after a few weeks, David came back for me, but I refused him. The police came before David could do anything, and he was arrested. He refused to tell anyone where Laura was, though, and after months of searching, the police gave up.

But David should be in prison. He was given a life sentence. How did he get out without anyone notifying us?

"Then how is David here?" Chloe asks. I shrug.

"I don't know. He must've escaped prison or something, I don't know. Ugh, why did this have to happen to me? I wish I had never gone to London…"

"Well, we can't change the past now." Alisa says.

"Let's find some shelter so we can hide from David when he wakes up." Chloe and I nod. We slow down a little so we can look around for shelter. I look for a cave, an old house, anything, but I don't see anything. As the minutes tick down, I get more and more tired. It is like 3 in the morning, after all.

Suddenly, Alisa slips on a rock and falls. Chloe and I rush over to her to make sure she's alright.

"Are you alright?" I ask. Alisa groans in response.

"Juliette, Alisa's leg is bleeding pretty heavily." Chloe says urgently.

"We need to find shelter now."

"But where?" I ask. We both look around frantically for somewhere to go. I notice a small opening in the trunk of a nearby tree and walk towards it. I brush the leaves and grass aside to reveal a small cave.

"Chloe look over here!" I say.

"It's a cave! We should all be able to fit in here!"

"Oh, thank God! Alisa, can you walk?"

"I should be able to walk with a little bit of support." Chloe and I half walk half drag Alisa to the hole and ease her in slowly.

"Alisa, will we all fit?" I ask into the darkness.

"It's a little small, but we it'll work for now." She calls after a few seconds of silence. Chloe and I pile in the cave and I cover the entrance with leaves and such. Chloe starts to rip her shirt sleeve off and wrap it around Alisa's leg.

"It's all we can do for now," Chloe says, "but this is better than nothing." I suddenly remember I have my phone in my pocket. I take it out of my pocket and turn it on.

"No signal." I groan.

"Mine too."

"Same here."

"Then I guess we'll just have to wait." And we did.

We all slowly start to drift off to sleep. You really can't blame us, seeing as we were just running away from a crazy maniac at 3 in the as I'm falling asleep, I hear Alisa mumble something.

"I love you guys. You are the best friends I could've ever asked for. I'm glad you were in my life." I didn't think much of what she said then. Now I wish I had.

I wake up and check my phone for the time. 3:50 AM. I grumble and shake Chloe.

"Chloe, wake up." Once I see her eyes fluttering, I turn my attention to Alisa. She looked worse than she did when I fell asleep. Her face was deathly pale and her leg was covered in blood. And her eyes, her eyes are wide open. I crawl over to her and shake her, trying to wake her up.

"Alisa." I mumble.

"Alisa, wake up." No response.

Now I was starting to get nervous. Alisa is usually a really light sleeper, she should've woken up by now.

"Alisa, wake up, please." I say, suddenly alarmed. I check for her pulse, but I can't find it.

"Alisa, wake up! Alisa!" I say, practically screaming now. I put my head to her chest. She's not breathing.

"No, Alisa! You can't be dead! You can't!" I scream, pounding my fists on the ground.

"Alisa, please. Please don't be dead!" I say, still refusing to look up.

"Alisa?" I whisper, finally looking up into Alisa's dull, bloodshot eyes. And that's when I knew. Alisa's dead.

By now, Chloe's fully awake.

"Is Alisa ok?" I look from Alisa to Chloe and shake my head.

"No, Alisa's not ok. She's dead." I say, holding back sobs.

"What?" Chloe asks in disbelief. Then she looks at Alisa's eyes and she realizes what has happened.

"Oh no." She says just above a whisper.

"Oh no, indeed." A voice says from the entrance. I whip my head around and see David smiling at us triumphantly.

"Hello, Love." David grabs Chloe's arm and drags her out, Chloe screaming her head off. I hear Chloe screaming outside for a few seconds, and then there is silence. David pops back in and pulls me out of the hole. Once he has me out of the cave, I notice Chloe's limp body on the ground. I immediately run over to her.

"What did you do to hear?!" I scream at David.

"Relax, love, it's just chloroform. She'll wake up in a few ours. Now let's go." He puts Chloe over his shoulder and starts to walk away.

"Wait!" I scream. David turns around and raises his eyebrow.

"Wait! Please! My other friend is still in there. She's….. she's…."

"Dead?" David asks. I nod my head silently.

"Hm. Maybe I should burn the body…"

"No!" I yell, walking up to David.

"Please, let me have closure. Let me say goodbye."

"Why would I do that?" David asks.

"Please. I'll do anything, just let me say goodbye."

"Anything?" David asks wickedly, his eyes glinting with mischief. I gulp.

"Anything." David sets Chloe down on the ground and sets his eyes on me.

"You have to swear you will never try to escape. Ever. You can't even talk about it. One sign of rebellion, and I might just take my anger out on your little friend…" His eyes glance at Chloe and then back at me.

I hesitate. If I agree, I'll be selling my freedom to a delusional creep. But if I don't, I'll never have closure. I'll never get to say goodbye. I need this. I need to have at least a little closure.

I swallow my fear and say, "Deal."

"Now swear on it…" David says expectantly.

"I swear I will never try to escape for as long as I live."

"Marvelous!" David exclaims, clapping his hands.

"Now, hurry along! We wouldn't want to be out and about when the sun comes up, now would we?" I walk back to the tree and crawl into the cave. I crawl to Alisa's lifeless body and bow my head.

"I'll miss you, Alisa. I'll miss you so much. I miss you already. I don't know how I'm going to live without you." I wipe my tears and continue.

"I will avenge you. I don't care if it takes five days or five years, I will do it. I will never forget you, Alisa Carolina Buttermaker. Never." I close Alisa's eyes gently and crawl out of the cave. I walk away from the tree as David crosses me.

"You done?" I nod my head sadly. I stand back and watch as David silently takes out his lighter and lights the tree on fire. We stare as the fire slowly climbs up the tree, consuming every branch in its path. Soon, the entire tree is on fire. I watch as the tree and Alisa's body burn up into ashes.

"Well that was fun." David says cheerfully.

"Now let's get going." I turn around confused.

"Shouldn't we stop the fire before it spreads?" I ask and David shrugs.

"Nah, Someone else will take care of it. Now let's go." He puts Chloe over his shoulder and looks at me.

"I can walk."

"Good. Stay in front of me at all times, and don't wander off. Oh, and welcome to the rest of your life, Love." I shed a single tear when David says that, because it's true.

I walk in front of David, just as he said to do, and listen to the sound of our footsteps and the fire behind us. We walk into the never ending darkness and don't look back.


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

After about half an hour of walking in silence, I start to feel little droplets of water on my head. Soon, it's full out pouring. I don't mind though. I love the rain.

I remember when I was a kid I would sneak out of the house whenever it would rain and sing and dance around until my parents told me to get back inside. Needless to say, I got sick a lot, but it was totally worth it. I feel like I can be myself in the rain. I know that sounds weird, but it's true. No one can tell me how to act or dress when I'm in the rain. I'm a free spirit.

"Well, now we know what will put out the fire." David says, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work very well. I mean, any other time, it might work better. But not right after he just killed 4 of my close friends and kidnapped Chloe and I. not to mention what happened to Laura.

Eventually, we make it to an old abandoned house that looks like it's falling apart. The front steps are moldy and decaying, and the porch looks like it could collapse at any second. I reluctantly step unto the porch and into the house, David right behind me. He closes the door as I look around. The inside looks better than the outside of the house, but not by much. We are in what seems to be the living room, with the kitchen off to the side and a small staircase leading who knows where. Everything has a layer of dust on it.

"This is one of my many hideouts in this area." David explains, laying Chloe on the couch.

"We will stay here until tomorrow night, when we can start traveling again. Unfortunately, you can't know where I'm taking you, so I'll have to put you under briefly." I nod.

"Ok." I sit down next to Chloe on the couch and David sits in the love seat.

"So….." David says awkwardly. There is an awkward pause.

"When will Chloe wake up?" I ask.

"In a couple of hours."

"Oh. OK." I say, sighing. I hope she enjoys her last couple of hours of freedom.

I glance at David and notice he's staring at me. I stare right back, trying to put as much hatred into my glare as possible. We just stare at each other for a few minutes. Eventually, David breaks the silence.

"God, you're beautiful." He says. I snort.

"Sure I am." I respond sarcastically.

"I mean it, Juliette."

"Sure you do." David's eyes flare with anger and I know I crossed the line. David stands up and lifts me up by my neck, me clawing at his hands.

"You are beautiful, Juliette. Don't you ever forget it. Your bright smile, your sparkling eyes, your soft hair, your everything. You are perfect. You've always been beautiful, and you always will be. You have no idea the affect you have on me. Every time I look at you, I want to kiss you, hold you, make you mine. You are beautiful. Got it?" I nod my head frantically, feeling light headed. David's hands immediately loosen their grip around my neck, and he sets me down.

"Good."

I fall to my knees, gasping for breath. Is this what my life has come to? Almost being chocked to death by my crazy stalker after witnessing my friends' murders and getting kidnapped?

I look up at the monster called David. He offers me his hand, and I take it reluctantly. David lifts me off the ground and pulls me into a hug.

"I'm sorry." David whispers.

"It's ok." I whisper back, even though it's not.

"I'm ok, see? I'm fine." I rub David's back awkwardly as he holds me close to his body. We stay like that for a while. He eventually lets go of me and I sit back on the couch.

"Try to get some rest, ok? I'll make some food." I nod and David walks into the kitchen, leaving me with Chloe.

I sigh. I can't escape. I can't just leave Chloe here with David, and I'm too tired to carry her. My thoughts start to wander, and I eventually start to nod off. I take a short nap and then look at the time. 12:00 PM. I glance at Chloe and notice she's starting to stir. I shake her elbow gently and whisper in her ear.

"Chloe, wake up." Chloe opens her eyes and I feel a pang of guilt. She's now officially back in reality.

"Where are we?" Chloe asks, looking around.

"Somewhere in the forest." I say, scratching the back of my head awkwardly.

"David, uh, took us." Chloe looks around frantically and starts to breath heavily.

"Chloe, listen to me." I say firmly.

"It's just us now. Alisa, Karlie, the Kenzey's, they're all gone now. We have to stick together. Don't anger David, he gets angry very quickly. We'll help each other through this, ok? He'll probably release you soon anyways, he only came for me. If and when he lets you go, you have to promise not to spill. He would just take you again. I'll be fine on my own. I'm so sorry I got you into this. We just have to support each other, ok?" Chloe nods, still in shock. I smile and hug her tightly.

"I knew I could trust you." I say. I hear someone clear their throat behind me and I whip my head around.

"Lunch is ready." David says, walking back into the kitchen. I smile at Chloe, pretending to be confident, and grab her hand. I give her hand a reassuring squeeze as we both stand up.

"Let's go, I'm hungry." And then we head into the kitchen.


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

Chloe and I sit down at the kitchen table and we start to eat. No one says a word. After we eat lunch, Chloe goes back to the living room while David and I clean up. Once the kitchen is all clean, I try to retreat back to Chloe, but David grabs my hand and turns me around to face him. He strokes the side of my face while I stare at the ground.

"Now Love," David says sternly.

"You should look at people in the eyes, not stare at their shoes." He pushes my chin up so I'm forced to look at his eyes. Admittedly, David's eyes are really pretty. They're a bright green with a hint of hazel, and they sparkle brighter than the brightest diamond.

After a few seconds, I pull my chin out of David's grasp and spit on his shoes. At first, David looks furious, but he calms himself down and smiles.

"You haven't changed one bit." I scowl and leave the kitchen, sitting next to Chloe on the couch.

"So…" I say awkwardly.

"How's your Doctor Who fanfic going?" Chloe and I chat aimlessly about stuff we've already discussed. It's not like we can talk about anything important, with a crazy kidnapper in the other room who's probably listening to our conversation.

After a while, conversation fades off and we just sit there twiddling our thumbs. I see something out of the corner of my eye and look over to the wall. I glance out the dusty window and notice something moving outside. I can't tell what it is, as the curtains are in the way, so I walk over to the window and move the curtains slightly. I look outside and see some trees and flowers and bushes. Nothing unusual.

Just as I'm about to walk back to the sofa, I see something moving again. I lean closer to the window and make out an outline of an animal behind a tree. No, not an animal. A human. It's a guy with blonde hair. He has a green hat and shirt-like thing on with white stockings. He looks a lot like the character Link from Legend of Zelda. Except his eyes. I can't even see his eyes. It just looks like dark pits. But that's ridiculous. It's probably just because he's so far away.

But why is he here? No one in this area really role-plays except my friends and I. And besides, who would role-play this deep in the forest? Maybe he got lost or something. Which I doubt, since he doesn't look worried or afraid.

The guy, who shall now be called Link, looks like he was searching for something. He turns around and spots me looking at him. He smirks, winks, and goes behind the tree. I don't see him appear on the other side of the tree, which is weird, since it's not a very big tree. I blink a few times, confused at what I just witnessed.

"What are you doing?" David asks behind me, making me jump. I quickly move away from the window and turn around. Unfortunately, when I turn around, I trip on David's shoes and fall, sending us both to the ground. I land on David and he winces slightly.

"Sorry," I mutter, blushing. I quickly standing up and brush my pants off.

"I'm such a klutz."

"It's fine, don't worry about it." David responds, also standing up. He gives me a small smile that I hesitantly return.

"But seriously, what were you doing?" My smile drops.

"Oh, I, uh, I was looking at some birds," I say lamely.

"Well you shouldn't be sticking your head out like that, someone could see you." David says. I sigh, relieved he bought it. I sit back on the couch and David sits in the love seat. I turn to Chloe, hoping she'll say something to break the awkward silence.

"So…Um….Uh, David?" Chloe asks awkwardly.

"Where's the bathroom?" Thanks for making this even more awkward, Chloe. I knew I could count on you.

"Upstairs, third door on your left." David responds, nodding towards the stairs. Chloe thanks David and quickly goes upstairs, leaving David and I alone.

I turn around completely, not wanting to look at David after my stupid fall. It doesn't help very much, seeing as I can feel his eyes burning into the back of my skull. I check my watch and see its 6 PM. I finally get impatient and clear my throat.

"When are we going to leave?" I ask, trying to be nonchalant and failing miserably.

"Somewhere around nine or ten." David responds.

"I should start making dinner." I nod and hear David standing up and walking to the kitchen. I turn around and see Chloe coming downstairs. She looks at me with her signature 'I found something out' look. I've seen that look a lot before. Like when Chloe found out why the school funds for the dance kept disappearing( lunch lady stole it so she wouldn't have to cook), or when she figured out her crush liked her back( which we all celebrated very much). But I think I see it the most in math class. I wish I got that look in math class. Sigh.

Chloe sits down next to me and smiles. I smile too and wink. We just sit there occupied with our own thoughts until David call us for dinner. Chloe and I walk to the kitchen and sit down at the table. David gives us both a bowl filled with a chunky soupy substance.

"What is this?" Chloe asks.

"Lamb stew. Eat up!" David answers a little too cheerfully. As we're eating, I decide to strike up some conversation.

"Where did you get the lamb?" I ask.

"Oh, before I got you guys, I found an old abandoned barn. A lamb was still hanging around it, so I assumed whoever the barn used to belong to, died and no one took the animals. I hope you like it!" Wow. The only abandoned barn around here is in Bartville, the town next to Harrensburg. Harrensburg is where Chloe and I live. Or, I guess lived is a more correct term now.

We eat in silence for the rest of dinner. After we're all done, David throws all of the bowls and cups away, so no one would suspect we were there. He looks a his watch and smiles.

"It's 9:15, which means it's time to go."

He leads us out of the house and we follow him. I know I can't leave because of my promise to David, and Chloe knows better than to just try to run away without a plan. As we're walking, my mind wanders. Earlier, David said that was one of many hideouts he had in the area. Questions stormed my head about that. How many did he have around here? How did he get them? How long has he been out of prison? Has he been stalking me again? Is that why he had so many in this area?

David leads us out of the forest and unto a small dirt road. On the side of the road is a black car.

"Juliette?" Chloe asks, whispering.

"What's he going to do?"

"The answer to that, darling," David says, turning around, "will be answered shortly." Chloe jumps, surprised David could hear her. David turns back around and takes something out of the trunk of the car.

"Chloe, come here for a second, would you?" He asks. Chloe, having no other choice, walks up to David reluctantly. As she's walking up to David, I notice he has a damp cloth in his hand. David faces Chloe and whispers something to her. I try to figure out what he's saying, but I can't. It obviously wasn't very good, because Chloe's face is drained from all color. But she nods, and David smiles slightly. And then he puts the cloth over Chloe's mouth and she breathes in sharply. Within a few seconds, she's out like a light. David grabs her body before it can hit the ground, and he puts her in the backseat of the car. He beckons me to come forward, and I walk up to him.

"I'm assuming you've never been chloroformed, yes?" David asks me. I nod.

"It's simple, really. Just breathe in this stuff and you're knocked unconscious. Just like sleeping." I nod again, kind of annoyed David didn't think I knew how chloroform works.

"Again, sorry about this. I just can't let you know where I'm taking you, for security measures." David puts the cloth up to my mouth and I breathe in. And then I let the darkness consume me.

I dream about my family. More specifically, my mother. My mom and I used to be really close, but that all changed in the eighth grade. It was the grade after David took Laura, and the beginning of my depression. At the time, I listened to pop music like every other teenage girl, but I started to hate it. Pop was all about dating and relationships and sex, and I wanted something with more meaning. So I started to listen to rock. At first, my mom was okay with it. But then she found out I was listening to bands like Black Veil Brides and Of Mice & Men, and she got really mad at me. She said I was going down the wrong path in life, and that I should start listening to Classical music like my brothers. I refused, simply because 1. Classical music has always bored me, and 2. Rock was helping me get through life. We got into a huge fight about it, and she still nags me about it today. Then she started criticizing my clothes and interests, and said that I'm ruining my life.

I found the whole ordeal really sad. I mean, rock music has saved me so many times. My mom doesn't how many times I've been alone in my room crying, wanting to jump out the window or hang myself on the fan. But then music makes me feel better. It gets me through my life. Without it, I would've been dead five years ago. And my mom can't even figure out her own daughter hates herself. It's kind of obvious if you live with me, too. The blood stains on my bed sheets. The scars on my arms and legs. The fact that I barely come down for meals, and when I do, I only eat a few pieces of whatever we're having. And she still can't figure it out.

And if she ever found out, she wouldn't understand. She's never been depressed once in her life. Not a thought even close to suicidal. My mom will never understand what my life has been like the last five years. And she will probably never even know I'm depressed, now that David took me.

I wake up, relieved I don't have to relive the past any longer. Now I just have to deal with the future. I notice the car has stopped, and look at Chloe.

"Hi." I say groggily.

"When did you wake up?" Chloe shrugs.

"A few minutes ago. We were already stopped when I woke up too." I peer into the front seat, which is kind of difficult, seeing as it is pitch black outside and I already have crap vision to begin with.

"He's getting something out of the trunk." Chloe interjects. That's when I notice the sound of someone digging through stuff behind us.

"Oh." Is all I say. After a few minutes, the door opens and David ushers us out of the car. Once we step out of the car, David closes the door and turns to us. Or, at least I think he does. I can't see very well in this light. Suddenly, I feel something rough against my wrists and I jump.

"Relax, love." David says.

"I just have to tie up your hands so we can stick together." Yes, because it's so easy to relax after you've just been kidnapped by a crazy stalker. And it's totally believable when your kidnapper says he tying you up so you don't get lost.

He ties up my wrists and then Chloe's wrist. He ties us up with the same rope, and takes the remaining rope and ties it around his own wrist. So it's basically a people leash. Great.

David uses his flash light to start walking into the trees, and Chloe and I follow behind him. I notice that we eventually start moving upwards, and it gets harder to walk around blindly without falling. The ropes start to hurt my wrists. David tied them fairly tightly, and them rubbing up against my scars aren't helping either. Eventually, the land flattens out and we walk into a meadow. I see that it is now light enough to see my surroundings, and a sigh in relief. Walking around blindly wasn't very fun.

I notice a mountain like structure on the other side of the meadow, and then realize David is walking towards it. I also realize David untied the rope around his wrist, and now he's just carrying it. Apparently he wasn't feeling too hot with them on either.

As David's pulling us along, I stop. I don't want to go into there. I can't. I know that once I step in there, I won't be getting out for a very long time.

After a few seconds, David notices I stopped and pulls on my end of the rope. I still resist, puling the other way. David pulls even harder, and I jerk towards him. Once I'm close enough, he grabs my wrists and squeezes hard.

"Wouldn't want to resist, now would we love?" David asks threateningly. His grip tightens on my wrists and I cry out in pain, shaking my head quickly. David smirks.

"Good." He lets go of me and I rub my now throbbing wrists. I step away from David as he continues onward, as if nothing had happened. Chloe walks towards me and moves the ropes slightly, inspecting my wrists.

Are you okay?" She asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine." After a few more minutes of walking in silence, we reach the base of the mountain. David goes to a bush growing at the base of the mountain and moves it to reveal a small hole. Small enough to go unnoticed, but big enough for a human to crawl through it. David motions for us to come next to him, and we reluctantly obey. David looks at me and smirks.

"Ladies first."

I always saying 'ladies first' was just a way for guys to look at girl's butts. In this case, I don't doubt that's what David was doing. Creep.

I crawl into the hole and see that it opens up enough inside to stand up. I stumble through the darkness blindly as Chloe follows close behind.

"Just keep going straight." David says, once we're all in the tunnel. He puts the bush back into place over the hole, covering any light we had left. Let me tell you, going straight isn't very easy when you can't see anything. And it wasn't very helpful that David was holding up his flashlight, but refused to give it to me, which was stupid since I was in front. We walk straight for a while, me occasionally tripping over something or almost falling on my face.

All of a sudden, I step forward and there's only air under my feet. I fall forward, taking Chloe with me, as we are still tied together. We fall unto one cold hard surface, and I try to get up. But then Chloe lands on me and we go tumbling down what I think is a flight of stairs. After getting tumbled around like a bunch of rag dolls in a laundry machine for about thirty seconds, we finally hit the ground. Fortunately, Chloe's fall is cushioned. Unfortunately, her fall is cushioned by me.

We both groan as a light suddenly temporarily blind us. I look up and see David shining his flashlight down on us.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you." David says, walking down the stairs nonchalantly.

"There is a flight of stairs here."

"Thanks for that information," I groan, "But next time, could you tell us before we fall down them?" David chuckles as he helps us up.

"Sorry about that." He says, obviously not sorry. I finally look around and see we're in a large cavern of some sort. A single door leads to what I assume is another tunnel.

"The next tunnel also doesn't have light bulbs, so I guess I'll have to give you a candle or something so this won't happen again." David goes over to a box in the corner and goes through it as Chloe and I compose ourselves. Great. Now I have throbbing wrists, an aching back, and a headache. David walks back over to us and hands each of us a candle. As he lights a match to light up the candles, I see the Link guy right behind David. And then he's gone. I couldn't have seen that guy though. That's impossible. I'm just imagining things, or so I thought. I mentally shrug as David lights my candle, and then Chloe's.

"Moving on," David says. I sigh and open the door leading to the next tunnel. We reach another flight of stairs, but this one's much smaller than the last. We walk down it and then I see the door about twenty feet away. We walk up to it and I try to open it up. It's locked.

David goes past Chloe and I to reach the door. He spends a bit too much time right beside me, our bodies touching slightly due to the cramped tunnel size. David takes out a key and turns it in the lock. The door opens and David steps into the room, Chloe and I right behind him.

Ever since David took us, I've been wondering what David's house looks like. Is it old, rotting, and creepy like the abandoned house? Or is it quainter than that? I thought it would be kind of cold and dark and evil looking. And man, was I wrong.

"Welcome to your new home."

David turns on the lights, momentarily blinding Chloe and I. After our eyes adjust, we gasp. We're in a huge open space with a large chandelier in the middle of the ceiling. To the front left is a door, which leads to who knows where. To the front right is what looks like the dining, and possibly a kitchen beyond it. To the back left and right are two hallways that go in opposite directions, and seem to go on forever. A spiral staircase lies near the back wall between the two hallways. The entire place is extremely elegant and well kept, and I can't help but be amazed at the size.

As Chloe and I gawk at, well, everything, David closes the front door and locks it. He walks over to the door on the left and opens it, revealing a small closet. He takes off his coat and puts it in the closet. Finally, David turns to us and smiles.

"Well? What do you think?" David asks.

"It's….. Beautiful." I say amazed.

"I'll give you a tour of the place and then we can eat dinner. Does that sound good?" I nod.

"Well then come along." Chloe and I follow David as he shows us the house. The two hallways on the ground floor go around and connect, so it makes a circle. In between the two hallways is a courtyard, which includes a garden, a pool, and a skylight. There are a bunch of different rooms in the other side of the hallway, including a movie room, a game room, a weight lifting room, and a library that David said he'd show us later. Upstairs is where all of the bedrooms are. There are 8 bedrooms in total, the biggest one being David's room. All of the other bedrooms are completely vacant, or at least as far as I can tell. In the middle of the hallway is a glass tube that looks down into the courtyard, and of course leads up to the skylight. At the very end of the hall, there is a single door on the back wall that is locked. David said that we will never see the contents of the room, unless we disobey.

Throughout the entire tour, my head is spinning with questions. Who built this place? How did David get it? How does he maintain it? And how come no one has noticed it yet?

As we head back down the spiral staircase, I try to found out more about how David got this house, er, I mean mansion.

"So….." I say awkwardly.

"How did you get the money to buy this place?"

"I inherited it from my great grandfather." David says proudly.

"He was a smuggler of ancient artifacts. He made quite a lot of money selling the artifacts, so he built this place so it would be easier to hide them before he sold them. He was never caught." David pauses and smiles, as if reliving old memories.

"When he died ten years ago, I inherited it, and I renovated it along with some of my friends." I nod.

"Interesting. I guess breaking the law runs in the family." I say, stopping David right in his tracks.

"What did you just say?" David asks, his voice icy and sharp.

"W-well," I say stuttering, "your great grandfather was a smuggler, and you kidnap-" David cuts me off by slamming me into the stairwell.

"I am not a criminal, okay?" David yells at me, anger practically steaming off of him.

"I did this for us. This isn't a crime, it's an act of love. Why can't you see that? I love you!" I don't respond. My silence makes David even madder. He picks me up and throws me off of the staircase, holding me by my bare foot.

"ANSWER ME WHEN I TALK TO YOU!" David screams.

"I'm sorry!" I cry out, tears forming in my eyes.

"I'm really really sorry! I didn't mean it! Please forgive me." Under any other circumstances, I would just let David fling me off of the stairs and end my life. But Chloe's here too. I know that once I'm gone, David will have no use for her. He will kill her if I die. And I can't willingly take my life knowing I'm also killing my best friend.

David lifts me up and sets me on the stairwell. He leans in to me and whispers in my ear.

"I love you, Juliette. And eventually, you will learn to love me too."

David lets go of me and continues down the stairs. I get off the stairwell and turn to a horrified looking Chloe.

"Let's go, wouldn't want to make him mad again." I say to Chloe. I smile and start walking down the stairs. After a moment, Chloe gets over her shock and joins me. We walk down the last pair of steps and meet David at a door I don't remember seeing earlier.

"This is the cellar." David says stiffly.

"You will sleep in here with the others for the next few days while I prepare your rooms." Which means he's still mad at me for that scene on the stairwell. After a few seconds, my brain processes what David said, and my stomach drops. I glance at Chloe, who looks as terrified as I feel.

"There are… Others?" Chloe squeaks.

"Yes. You'll meet them at dinner which is…." David looks at his watch, "Oh! Right now. Come along." David leads us to the dining room and sits down at the head of the table. David nods to Chloe and I to sit down, and we do so reluctantly. We sit on either side of David, so Chloe and I face each other. I let my body sink into the velvet chair slightly, relaxing a little.

A few seconds after we sit down, a girl my age comes through the kitchen door with three plates of spaghetti. She has curly, auburn hair and hazel eyes. She is wearing a stereotypical maid's outfit with white lacy leggings and her air up in a bun. She sets the plates of spaghetti in front of us, gives me a pained expression, and walks back into the kitchen. A few seconds later, a guy about the same age as the girl walks out. He has bright blue eyes and curly blonde hair. He is wearing a stereotypical butler's uniform, just like the girl's was. He fills up our glasses with a clear bubbly liquid, which I assume is champagne. He goes back into the kitchen, and a few moments later, both the girl and the boy come out with a plate and glass.

"Juliette, Chloe, this is Ethan," David says gesturing to the guy, "and Marsa." The girl seems to flinch when David says her name, but he doesn't seem to notice. Ethan and Marsa nod politely in our direction, making sure not to maintain eye contact for more than a few seconds.

"You may be seated." David tells them, and they both sit down and begin to eat.

"Marsa and Ethan are my servants." David explains.

"They cook, clean, and do the laundry. Marsa is a pretty little thing, isn't she? She would make a good profit in the slave trade." Marsa yet again winces at his words.

"But she is rather useful, unlike Ethan. Sometimes I wonder why I still keep him around. Oh well." David shrugs and resumes eating. Nobody talks for the rest of dinner. Well, except for David, who tells Chloe and I all of the stuff we can do here, which includes being scared out of our minds, trying to escape, and being watched every second of every day! Doesn't that sound fun?

Once everyone is finished, Marsa and Ethan take our plates and glasses and David leads us out of the dining room.

"You two must be tired after this long day. I'll put you downstairs now, if you like." David says, and I nod. As if we had a choice. And besides, Chloe and I will finally be able to talk in private.

David leads us to the cellar door, which is at the beginning of the left hallway.

"Once your rooms are ready, we'll move you upstairs. But until then, welcome to the cellar." He opens the door and pushes Chloe inside swiftly. As I'm about to go in after her, David wraps his arm around my waist tightly.

"You know, you could always sleep in my room until your room is ready." David says in my ear.

"I think I'd better stay with Chloe tonight." I say politely.

"Fine." He grumbles.

"But don't forget our agreement, Love."

"I won't."

"Good." David shoves me into the cellar, slams the door shut, and locks it.

"Well that was interesting." Chloe says. We look around. The cellar doesn't hold much, just a few boxes of food and, for some reason, bales of hay. The only light source is a single light bulb in the center of the room that looks like it's going to go out any second.

"What did David whisper in your ear?" I was about to tell her, but then I remembered she didn't know about David and I's agreement. The agreement in which I sold our freedom in order to say goodbye to Alisa. I wasn't even thinking of Chloe at the time, I just wanted to see Alisa one last time.

_Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. _

"Nothing" I lie.

"He just told me to stop running my mouth." It wasn't a total lie, I guess.

"So, what did you find out at the other house?" Chloe looks around for cameras, sees none, and clears her throat.

"When I was upstairs, I went into one of other rooms and found an office. I did a little snooping, and I found a bunch of journals. I didn't read them all, but I skimmed through them, and David is obsessed with you." I roll my eyes.

"I think we already established that." I say.

"No, I mean, like extremely obsessed." Chloe says.

"He had journals filled up with stuff about you. He had drawings, poems, even some of your school pictures. I found his diary, and it started talking about you in 2006, when we were only 10. And you met him when we were 12. David has been crazy for you longer than we ever imagined."

"Wh-What?!" I say in shock. I sit down on a pile of hay and put my head in my hands. David's been stalking me for seven years. How did I not notice?

"I can't believe it. I never even noticed. That would-" I was cut off by the sound of the door opening and Marsa and Ethan being pushed inside. The door closes, and we are once again shrouded by darkness.

"Ugh, why did we have to get taken by David, of all people?!" Marsa says, clearly mad.

"We finally think we can escape, and then he brings them here! Now how are we going to escape?"

"Calm down, Marsa." Ethan says reassuringly.

"We'll work it out. We'll escape one day, and we'll never see David again. Unless it's in court, but still. You just have to be patient." They hug and I realize they didn't notice Chloe and I were in there. I clear my throat, and Marsa and Ethan jump apart.

"Um….. hi." I say awkwardly. Marsa and Ethan look towards where my voice is coming from and see Chloe and I.

"Hello Juliette, Chloe." Ethan says politely.

"As you already know, I'm Ethan and this is Marsa. If I may ask, what are you doing down here?" I hold down my laughter at how ridiculous that sounded and respond.

"Ethan, you don't have to talk like that in front of us, we're prisoners here too." Ethan and Marsa relax immediately.

"Sorry." Marsa says sheepishly.

"We haven't talked to anyone besides David for so long, and-"

"Don't worry about it." I interject.

"Why are you two here? And for how long?" Chloe asks them. Ethan and Marsa looks at each other, and Marsa begins to explain.

"Ethan and I are twins. People usually don't notice because we look nothing alike. We are 16. When we were 10, David came to our house. He killed our parents and took us and our 14 year old sister, Stephanie. He beat her and broke her, and she became her maid. But he couldn't break us. I guess we were always free spirits." Marsa smiles faintly at the memory and sheds a tear before continuing.

"One day, David had enough. He gathered us all outside and tied Ethan and I to a stake in the middle of the meadow. He gave Stephanie a gun and told her to shoot one of us and the other would be let go. He said it was a test of her loyalty. She refused, and tried to shoot David instead. She shot him in the leg and ran to us to try to free us, but David was right behind her. He slit her throat right in front of us, and made us dump her body in a nearby river. After that day, we never disobeyed David again.

"When we were 11, David left for a few weeks. When he came back, he brought a girl name Laura with him. He told us to take care of her, and then left for a few months. He left his friend, Jason, in charge during that time." Marsa shivers, and I sense that Jason wasn't a very nice person.

"Laura wanted to escape, to run. She claimed she had to find her friend, 'Juliette'. Of course, Ethan and I knew that if we tried to escape, David would kill us.

"When David came back from wherever he was, he was even worse. He tortured Laura everyday, claiming that she took the love of his life away from him. Everyday, Laura got weaker and weaker, and David got angrier and angrier. One day, David exploded. He shot Laura in the leg, and kicked her out to the wolves. We never saw Laura again. By now, we were 12.

"After that, everything returned to normal. Until a few days ago, when David left to get you, I'm assuming. You're Laura's friend, aren't you? You're David's obsession." I shiver at the word 'obsession.'

I nod numbly. So now I know what happened to Laura. David capture her, tortured her, and after a year threw her to the dogs. I sit there, feeling no emotion. I know I should feel something, anything. Anger that Laura got tortured. Sadness that she probably died. Happiness that at least I know what happened to her. But I don't. I don't feel a thing. That's the thing about depression. People assume depression is just when people are sad all of the time. But most of the time, you don't feel anything. And when you do feel an emotion, it's usually anger or sadness or pain. Rarely ever happiness. Just….. Nothing.

"So what's your story?" Ethan asks.

"Surely your life hasn't been hasn't been rainbows and sunshine either." I look at Chloe.

"Can you explain?" I ask hoarsely. Chloe nods.

Chloe tells them our story, from Laura's kidnapping in London to when David takes us.

"Wow." Ethan mutters once she's finished.

"That's rough."

"Together." I whisper.

"What?" Marsa asks.

"We need to stick together. We need to pick each other up, help each other when we're down. The only way we can get out of here is together. If we don't work together, we will all die in this hell hole. We go together or we don't go down at all."

"She's right." Chloe says.

"We need to stay together. Agreed?"

"Agreed.'

"Agreed."

"Agreed."

"Good, now we need to get some sleep." Ethan says.

"Don't want to make a bad first impression." I laugh.

"It's a bit too late for that now." I say.

As I slowly drift off to sleep, I feel like it won't be so bad here.

Man, was I wrong.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

I wake up to water being thrown on my face. I immediately jump up in alarm and see David standing over me with an empty bucket in his hands.

"Rise and shine, Love." David says roughly.

"Go and get a shower, you need one. I left some clothes for you in the bathroom down the hall." I groan.

"Is everyone else up?" I ask.

"Yes. Now hurry up." David leaves and I stand up groggily. I walk up the cellar steps and down the hallway before turning around.

"Where is everyone?" I ask.

"They're in the dining room waiting for you. Now go on."

I sigh and walk into the bathroom. I close the door behind me and lock it. I don't want anyone coming in, especially David, with what I'm about to do. I strip down and step into the hot water, relishing the slight burning sensation I get for a few seconds. Having the urge to cut myself, I look around for something sharp. You know, people who have never self-harmed don't realize how addictive it is. It's like a drug. You try it out of curiosity, or desperation, and then you get hooked and can't stop.

I couldn't see anything sharp at first. Right as I was about to just use my finger nails, I see something shining in the corner of my eye. I glance over to the corner of the shower and see a small pin. I don't know how it got I here, but it'll do. I grab the pin and put it next to my left arm. I push down on it, causing it to draw a single drop of blood. I move the pin across my arm, blood slowly coming out. I relish the sting of the scar against the hot water, before moving to make another cut.

Just as I'm about to press the pin down again, there's a knock on the door.

"Juliette, hurry up." It's David.

"Okay, I'll be out in a second." I respond. I finish with the rest of my shower, still longing for the pin against my skin. I get out of the shower and flush the pin down the toilette, so no one will find it. Then I change into the clothes David set out for me, a long sleeved Panic! At The Disco shirt and a pair of black shorts. I wasn't surprising this outfit was my style, since David has been stalking me since I was 10. That would be bad if he hadn't picked up on my style, since it's been 7 years. I quickly comb out my golden brown hair and walk out of the door. As I'm walking to the dining room, I notice Marsa nearby, and decide to talk to her.

"Hey Marsa. How are you?" I ask.

"David has requested you meet him for breakfast, miss. May I assist you to the dining room?" I look at Marsa strangely. Why is she talking to me so formally? Marsa nods her head slightly to the corner of the room, then covers it up by scratching her neck. I glance over quickly and see a security camera on the ceiling. _Oh, She's worried about being recorded, _I think. _Of course._

"Uh, no thanks, I'm good." I answer.

"But thanks anyway." Marsa nods and walks away.

I walk to the dining room and see David and Chloe already there. David smiles at me as I sit down in the same chair as last night.

"Good morning, Love. How are you feeling?" David asks cheerfully.

"I'm feeling fine, thank you." I answer politely.

"So, Chloe, why don't you tell Juliette what I just told you?" Chloe immediately stiffens and gives me a look of sorrow. She tells me what David meant when Marsa and Ethan were giving us our breakfast.

"David was just telling me about all of his, uh, 'instruments'. He has a lot of 'instruments' that he can only use when we disobey. I'll save you all of the details, but David said he's been itching to try them out. Isn't that lovely, Juliette?" I gulp. David's threatening us to behave. Probably because of the scene on the stairs yesterday. I really don't think things through, do I?

"That's lovely." I say carefully.

"But let's hope we don't see those 'instruments' anytime soon. We wouldn't want to disturb the neighbors." David just laughs darkly and smirks.

"We'll see."

After breakfast, David tells Chloe and I to follow him. We walk down the long hallway, and I start to get nervous. Where is David taking us? Did my comment about the 'instruments' set him off? _I hope Chloe doesn't get hurt because of me._

David stops at a pair of 2 large oak doors and opens them.

"Welcome to my library!"

Do you know that scene in Beauty and the Beast where the Beast shows Belle his library? David's library was about that size. And, let me tell you, Chloe and I were way happier than Belle when she saw it.

"Oh. My. Gods." Chloe says amazed.

"I don't think I could've said it better, Chloe." I say softly. In front of us, is a huge library. There are rows upon rows upon rows of books. As far as the eye can see, there are book shelves filled with all kinds of books. To the left, is a large staircase that leads to the second floor, that you can see some on the bottom floor.

I blink a few times, making sure I'm not imagining things. If you haven't noticed yet, Chloe and I love to read. That's all we seem to do in our free time. That and write. We were both writing books before David took us, and I highly doubt he'll let us keep writing them and putting them on the internet. Which is a shame, since our books were pretty popular, and I left on a cliffhanger. I mean, I didn't mean to. You see, I was typing up one chapter, where at the end of it, the main character falls off a cliff, surely to die. In the next chapter, he sprouts wings and flies away, and I was going to type that chapter right after the last one, but then I got sidetracked and didn't get to it. And, of course, that was just a couple of days before David took us. Stupid bad timing. Ugh.

"Most of them are fiction books." David says proudly.

"I know how much you love fiction books." I involuntarily shiver at his comment. David sows us the biggest library in the world, and then has to spoil it by going all stalker on me.

"It's amazing." I finally say. I walk over to the nearest book shelf and run my hands over the back of the books. I walk through half of the first floor in total harmony, and then decide to go unto the second floor. As I walk back to the staircase, I pass Chloe, who seems to be looking at The Lord Of The Rings, so I don't bother her.

I walk up the stairs to the second floor and go to the balcony overlooking the first floor. I see Chloe walking around the fantasy section, probably looking for Harry Potter, and David near the entrance staring at me. I look away from David and walk further into the forest of book shelves until I can't feel David's eyes burning a hole in my head anymore.

I look around and see I'm near the sci-fi section. As I'm looking for something interesting to read, I feel a pair of arms wrap around my waist.

"David," I say annoyed, "I'm just looking for a book. I'm not doing anything."

"I'm not David." A voice whispers in my ear, making shivers run down my spine. I immediately turn around, and come face to face with thin air. I look around and spot the top of a green hat go around the corner. I run after him, only for him to disappear around another corner. I turn the corner and see nothing. I do, however see that I'm in the horror section. Then I feel a hand go over my mouth and he whispers in my ear again.

"Boo."

I turn around and see him. He's in between the two book shelves just staring at me. It's the guy from the forest.

He looks the same, still green shirt thing and white tights. His blonde hair and pointy green hat just sum up the whole Link look. But now, I can see his eyes. His eyes are just black pits with a red dot in the middle. It looks kind of cool and scary at the same time.

For a few moments, we just stare at each other. I notice that every 30 seconds or so, his image would flicker, as if he were a glitch.

"Who are you?" I ask, breaking the silence. He just smirks and takes a book off of the shelf. He looks at it for a second, and then suddenly throws it at me. I catch the book and turn it around.

"Popular Urban Legends and Creepypastas." I read aloud. I furrow my eyes in confusion.

"But what does this have to do with anythi-" I look up and he's gone. Just then, I hear David yell.

"Juliette, we have to go now. We can come back later. Take out a book if you want to. Come along, Love." I quickly go downstairs with the book 'Link' gave me. As I'm walking towards David, he notices the book I'm carrying.

"Huh. I didn't know you read horror books." David says, raising his eyebrow.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me." I answer. David's eyes darken.

"Indeed." We walk back to the dining room for an early lunch, and then go our separate ways. I go to the game room and start playing Super Smash Bros Brawl. I can't concentrate on the game, though. All I can think about is that Link guy. Why does he keep showing up? How did he get in here? What was up with his yes? And, why did he give me that book? I subconsciously start using Link for all of the challenges and stuff. Eventually, I just ditch the game and sit on the couch thinking.

Maybe he's just a roleplayer that got lost, and he likes scary stories. No, that doesn't make sense. How could he get in here?

I look at the book Link gave me. He had to give it to me for a reason. I open it up and look at the index. I find the video game section and start to read. The guy is dressed like a video game character, after all. It only makes sense.

I read about Lavender Town Syndrome and Creepy Black. I read about the Minecraft character Herobrine and Luna game. I read about Slender, Lost Silver, and Strangled Red. But none of them had anything to do with Legend of Zelda. Kind of annoyed at the amount of time I just wasted, I flip to the last story in the section: BEN Drowned.

I read the story, growing more and more sure it's my guy. BEN Drowned is about this guy who buys a bootleg version of Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask at a garage sale. The game is extremely different than it's supposed to be, though, and a bunch of creepy stuff keeps happening to his character. Link, played by the guy who bought the game, keeps getting stalked by this creepy statue, and the save file names keep changing. Then the guy talks to the man who he bought the game from, and he says that he got it from one of his neighbors that moved away because of some tragic accident. The guy even got footage of him playing the game and put it on youtube.

I have no doubt in my mind that that this is the guy I'm seeing. And I'm assuming his name is Ben. But it can't be. Ben Drowned is a fictional story, made only to entertain the reader. And even if it was real, it was probably just a glitch or hack. How could it come out of the game?

I close the book and stand up. I walk out of the game room, leaving the book behind, and walk to the dining room. I keep telling myself that it's not true, that I'm just imagining things. That I'm just sleep deprived and delusional and want to cling on to the hope that someone knows that I'm here. That this whole thing will blow over soon.

Or will it?


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

After dinner, David lets us have 15 minutes of time to ourselves before he puts us in the cellar. I go back to the game room to get the book Ben gave me and just have time to myself. I decide to go to YouTube to watch the videos the guy put on there. I quickly go to the computer on the desk and log into the guest account. I click open Chrome and go to . I type in the search bar for "BEN Drowned' and the videos I'm looking for immediately comes up. I watch them and a chill runs up my spine. Watching those videos just made me even more curious. I want to talk to Ben again, but how? Then I remember that sometimes, Ben communicated to the gamer through cleverbot. I go to quickly. I type in 'Are you here?'. Cleverbot then responds 'No, I do not own a car'. I sigh. Just the robot.

I try a few more times, to no avail. As I'm about to log off, I wonder if I could get unto Facebook and tell someone where I am. I try to go to Facebook, but the browser just keeps telling me an error message. I also try Google+, Tumblr, and Instagram, but the same thing happens.

_David must have rigged it, _I think. Seeing nothing else I could try to do, I log off and leave the game room with Ben's book. As I'm walking down the hallway, I meet Chloe, who was in the courtyard.

"Have you been in there yet?" Chloe asks me. I shake my head.

"You should. It's beautiful in there." I nod in agreement. We walk in silence until we meet David in the main room. He leads us to the cellar, and we are again thrown in the dark room. Marsa and Ethan join us after about half an hour. Tonight, we talk about ourselves as a person. Our likes and dislikes, our favorite color, etc.

"So," I say slowly, "Have you guys still been able to keep up with what's happening outside here?"

"Somewhat." Ethan replies.

"David only really tells us about the really important stuff, like school shootings and who's president and stuff like that. We're pretty outdated in our music taste though."

"Hey, so are we!" Chloe says. I nod.

"Yeah. Chloe listens to 'classic' rock, like Bon Jovi and AC/DC, and I'm still living in 2005." It's really true. I guess I could be current, since my favorite band is My Chemical Romance, but I try not to think of their current actions. I'm still so torn up from that. Why would they break up? I don't think I will ever fully recover.

"Well, did anything exciting happen recently?" Marsa asks.

"Only the heart wrenching news that My Chemical Romance is breaking up a few months ago." I say disgruntled.

"What?! Why?! I love My Chemical Romance!" Marsa exclaims.

"Really? That's awesome! What's your favorite band?" I ask.

"Panic! At The Disco, of course."

"I love Panic! At The Disco! They're my third favorite band!"

"What?! Who beat out my sweet Brendon Urie?"

"My Chemical Romance and Pierce The Veil."

"I love Pierce The Veil!" This goes on for a while until we get tired and go to bed. As I'm falling asleep, I make a mental list.

Good things that's happened since I got taken:

I'm not stuck with some prissy teenager who listens to pop all of the time.

And that's basically where my list ends.

A month passes, and almost nothing changes. Everyday, I wake up, go to meals, and then go off to do my own thing. I occasionally watch TV with Chloe, but other than that, I tend to ignore everyone.

Ben doesn't talk to me once during that month. I try to talk to him on cleverbot, but he never responds. I do, however, see Ben a lot. For some reason, he likes to appear to me at random times. When I'm walking in the library, when I'm outside in the courtyard, when I'm talking to someone. Sometimes, I'll see him when I wake up from a nightmare at night. He will just be sitting a few feet away from me, as if he's been staring at me for hours. But a few seconds after I've seen him, he always flickers and then disappears. I've taught myself how not to be surprised when I see him, so when I'm talking to David and I see Ben, I won't gasp and cause David to be suspicious. One day, though, I couldn't take it anymore.

After lunch, I walk to the library, as Ben seems to be in there the most. Why, I don't know. Almost immediately, I see him on the second floor, and practically run up the stairs. I know he'd probably be in the horror section, so I walk to the first horror book shelf and start searching the section for any trace of Ben.

As I turn the corner, I see him sitting on the ground in the middle of the 2 book shelves. His back is turned, and he doesn't seem to notice me, so I quietly walk up behind him to see what he's doing. I notice that instead of the usual long green shirt and tights, today he just has on a green hoodie and dark green pants.

Once I'm right behind Ben, I can see that he's playing on a 3DS XL, which is green and black, with golden buttons. It looks like he's playing Pokemon, in a similar style to X and Y. He has just gotten into a battle with another trainer. He only has one pokemon, a level 40 Ninetales, and the other trainer has two level 60 Gyradoses. He was obviously going to lose, since Ninetales is a fire type, and Gyrados is a water type, and water types are super effective against fire types. Even if Ben did manage to defeat the first Gyrados, there was no way he could live long enough to defeat the second one, especially since they were a higher level than his Ninetales.

I silently chuckle at the irony. _The great BEN Drowned, beaten in a video game? Wait until the internet hears about this!_ I think, amused.

I thought too soon.

Ben ordered Ninetales to use Death Slash, a move I've never heard of before. The Ninetales quickly runs at the Gyrados, and stabs it in the stomach. Blood pours out of the Gyrados's stomach as it collapses, but doesn't disappear. Then a text box appears.

**Gyrados was killed! Continue? Yes/No**

Ben presses yes and the next Gyrados appears. But the body of the first Gyados is still on the ground, so the second Gyrados just stands beside it. Ben tells Ninetales to use Death Slash again, but this time, the Gyrados goes first. It uses Hydro Pump, which is extremely powerful, but it does Ninetales no damage. _What is going on? _I think. _None of this should be possible. It's wrong._

And then it got worse.

Now it's Ninetales's turn, but instead of stabbing the Gyrados, this time Ninetales slits its throat. Blood oozes from the Gyrados's neck, and it collapses next to the first one. Another text box appears, with the same message as before.

**Gyrados was killed! Continue? Yes/No**

Ben again presses yes as I furrow my eyebrows in confusion. The other trainer has no more pokemon. What's going to fight him? But my stomach drops when I realize who will.

Instead of another pokemon coming out, the trainer does. As he stands in front of the bodies of the Gyradoses, I notice he's a fisherman. The trainer uses a move called beg, which is again, not familiar.

'Please spare me Ben!' The fisherman begs. I think I can actually see tears in his eyes.

'I'll do anything! Take my money, my clothes, anything! Just please spare me!' I feel a pang of sympathy for the fisherman, but quickly return back to watching the game.

Ninetales uses Death Slash, and this time, the trainer is decapitated. Another text box comes up.

**Fisherman Andrew was killed! Received $10,000.**

I stare at the fisherman. His body is still standing, and blood is pouring down his neck. But the worst part is his head. His head is on the ground, frozen in a silent scream. The actuality of what I just watched finally hit me, and I inhale sharply, causing Ben to turn around. He closes the 3DS and stands up quickly, scrutinizing me with his stare.

"How much of that did you see?" Ben asks me. I stare at him in shock. This is the second time he's ever talked to me. His voice is smooth but quiet.

"Uh, the entire battle. That's all." I say, afraid of how he will react.

"And?" Ben asks.

"And what?!" I answer.

"And what did you think?" Wow. That was definitely not what I expected him to say.

"It was….. Different." I finally reply.

"I applaud the creator for their creativity. Was this a hack, or an entirely fan made game?"

"I created the whole thing myself." Ben answers proudly.

"Then wow. The graphics were awesome! It was so realistic and cool. It felt like I was actually there at the battle. But…." Ben raises his eyebrow.

"If all pokemon games were like this, I don't think they could call it a kid's game anymore." Ben laughs darkly and shakes his head.

"They probably couldn't." We stare at each other awkwardly until Ben breaks the silence.

"I have to go now, so… Bye." Ben starts to walk down the aisle, and after a moment I run after him. Right before he turns the corner, I reach out and grab his wrist.

"Wait." I say. Ben stops but doesn't turn around. I swallow my fear and doubt and speak.

"I know who you are." I say. Ben turns his head slightly to look at me right in the eyes.

"I know." He answers. And then he slips out of my reach and slips around the corner. I just stand there thinking about what just happened. And then I walk down the stairs and out of the library. It isn't until much later I realize, that while I was holding Ben's wrist, he didn't flicker like he usually does. Not even once.

I walk into the movie room dazedly to see Chloe watching Doctor Who. I sit down next to her and she notices me.

"Hey." Chloe says, only half paying attention.

"Hi." I reply. After a few minutes of watching 'The Christmas Invasion Part Two', Chloe finally pauses the show and turns to me. She sees my dazed look and raises her eyebrow.

"Are you alright?" Chloe asks.

"I'm fine." I reply.

"Come on, it's time for dinner." Chloe sighs and nods. She turns off the TV and we head to the dining room.

No one really talks during dinner. I notice that David keeps giving me these strange looks, as if I'm an alien from outer space. After dinner is over, I head to the cellar with Chloe, but David stops me.

"Juliette, may I have a word with you privately?" David asks me. I glance at Chloe nervously before responding.

"Um….. Sure. I'll meet up with you later, Chloe." I give Chloe a reassuring smile and let David lead me up the spiral staircase.

I frown slightly. If I remember correctly, the only rooms up here are the bedrooms and the torture room at the end of the hallway. Is David going to give me my own bedroom now? No, if he was, then he would've brought Chloe up too. I swallow down the lump in my throat of the only other alternatives to why we were up here.

We finally make it to the second floor and walk all the way to the end of the hall. David takes out a ring of keys and unlocks the door on the back wall. He ushers me inside, closing and locking the door behind him. The room is pitch black, and David doesn't turn on any lights, so I just stand still, afraid of running into something.

"Juliette, Juliette, Juliette. What am I going to do with you, love?" David sings, sending shivers down my spine.

"Why do you always ignore me? You never talk to me unless absolutely necessary. You tend to always leave meals as soon as possible. In fact, you seem to be avoiding me. Why?" David turns on a light, which is very faint and can barely illuminating anything. I don't have to see much, though.

Directly below the light is a table filled with knives, hammers, needles, and a number of other indescribable torture devices. As I stare at the table, David walks in front of me, waiting for an answer.

"I-I'm just trying to get acclimated to the new environment." I stutter nervously.

"Hm." David says, unsatisfied.

"You know what I think?" He says quietly, picking up a small knife.

"I think you don't like me. I think you think that I took you from a great life. You had everything going for you, didn't you? You were going to go to college and graduate in a year or so and move on with your life. Get your dream job, make lots of money. Perhaps meet a guy, get married, have kids." David stops briefly, stepping closer to me so our bodies are touching slightly.

"But that's not how life works, is it? You have all of these great expectations for life. You think it will be easy and simple, but then you actually get there and you fall. Let me tell you right now, Love, real life sucks. It's all just a huge game of who will survive and who won't. But you don't understand that. I saved you from that life, Juliette. Why can't you see that?" David leans closer and whispers in my ear.

"I didn't take you from a good life. I gave you one."

David pushes me and I fall unto the cold hard ground. David takes my feet and drags me across the floor, while I'm kicking and screaming. David picks me up and sets me on a metal table. He straps my arms, legs, and waist down on the table so I can't get away from the pain that is bound to happen.

David lifts up my shirt just high enough to expose my stomach. He smiles at me weakly and says something I will never forget.

"I'm doing this for us, Juliette. You'll understand eventually." Then he takes the knife and presses it unto my skin lightly, progressively digging it slightly deeper every few seconds. Eventually, he gets tired of doing this and moves the knife, cutting patterns into my stomach. Finally I can't take it anymore, and I groan in agony. David smirks as he finishes carving into my skin. I finally glance down at my stomach and all I can see is blood.

David then does something unexpected. He takes what I'm assuming is antiseptic and cleans my wound. Then he wraps it up gently and takes me down stairs. He goes into the cellar and gently sets me down on a pile of hay. He leaves, but not before looking back at me one more time before closing the cellar door. I look around and see that Chloe, Marsa, and Ethan are already fast asleep.

As I'm laying in the hay, trying to fall asleep, I begin to understand David's intentions. He wants me to feel grateful that instead of letting me bleed to death, he cleans and dresses them. He wants me to forget all the pain that he caused me and just remember the relief he gave me.

But there are several problems with this plan. Number one: I live for the pain. I think I deserve to be tortured, beaten, and hurt. So David dressing my wounds instead of letting me suffer makes me annoyed, not thankful. Number two: David may have relieved the pain somewhat, but he's also the one who caused it. You can't remember who relieved you of the pain without thinking of who caused it in the first place. And number three: I'm just too clever to fall for it. I'm not some blonde that will fall for every trick in the book. David will have to come up with something better if he wants to fool me.

But that makes me wonder. If David has been stalking me since I was ten, why doesn't he know I self harm? I'll have to find out how he doesn't know tomorrow. But how?

I slowly drift off to sleep with many things swirling in my head. The episode with David, how I'm going to find out how he doesn't know I self harm, what exactly he carved into my skin. But the one thing dominating my brain is Ben. How do I feel about Ben? And right before I fall asleep, I realize.

I'm friends with BEN Drowned.


	10. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

The next day, I wake up, the pain in my stomach just a dull throb. I groan and stretch my legs, scratching them as I do so. I sit up and wait for David to unlock the cellar door. But he never comes. After about fifteen minutes of waiting, I get impatient and wake up Chloe.

"Chloe! Chloe, wake up!" I say, waking her up.

"What?" Chloe asks tiredly.

"Why hasn't David come down to get us yet? It has to be eight at least and it looks like David already got Marsa and Ethan. So where is he?" Chloe furrows her eyebrows and shrugs.

"I don't know. Did you try the door to see if it was unlocked?" I shake my head, feeling foolish for not thinking of that sooner.

"Well let's try it." We walk up the steps and twist the doorknob. The door opens up to the hallway and I feel my cheeks flush in embarrassment.

"Oh. I knew that." I say stupidly as we step into the hallway. Chloe rolls her eyes and we take turns in the bathroom. Then we head to the dining room. As Marsa and Ethan serve us our food, David smiles warmly at me as if last night never happened. I smile back, wanting David to think I've fallen for his trick. He seems to buy it, and is very social throughout the entire meal.

After breakfast, I casually confront David.

"Hey." I say.

"Hi." David answers back.

"I was thinking that maybe we could play some games in the game room together."

"Um… S-Sure." David says, stuttering slightly. Yes, David, the crazy, psychotic stalker/kidnapper gets nervous when the girl he kidnapped wants to spend time with him.

We walk to the game room and start playing a bunch of different games. I beat him in Mario kart, and he beats me at Super Smash Bros Brawl. I totally destroy him at Assassin's Creed 3, but he makes a comeback with Guitar Hero. We decide to relax before the tiebreaker, seeing as we did skip lunch.

While we eat Fritos and Cheez-its, we decide to play Candor. It works like this: one person asks you a question, and you have to answer truthfully. Then you get to ask them a question. You keep playing until you get sick of it and both people have asked the same number of questions they answered.

We mainly ask each other stupid questions, like 'what's your favorite color?' or 'what kind of music do you listen to?' David basically already knows all of my answers, since he's been stalking me for seven years, but I learn quite a bit about him. I learn that his favorite color is green, he is 21 years old, his birthday is August 8th, he has no siblings, and he listens to grunge music (Mainly Nirvana).

There is one question that I've been itching to ask him, though. I need to know if he knows I self harm.

"Okay, so after this question, we should get to the tiebreaker." I say.

"Okay. Ask away!" David exclaims.

"So, before you, uh, took me, did you… um…. Did you watch me when I was getting dressed, or in the shower?" If he didn't, then he wouldn't know that I self harm. Because, when I'm dressing, you can see my scars, and I self harm in the shower.

"No." David chuckles darkly.

"I'd figured I'd see you some day, with your actual consent, so I decided I could wait a few years." Heat rushes to my cheeks and I look down, embarrassed.

"So… Let's get on with the tiebreaker." I say awkwardly.

"Which game should we play?"

We end up picking Just Dance, because all of the other games I hadn't played before, David hadn't played before, or they were only single player.

"Let's play Just Dance 5." David says, holding up an unopened case.

"How did you get that?" I ask.

"They haven't even announced its release yet."

David just smiles and says "I have my ways. This would be a good tiebreaker, since neither of us have played it before, but we're both familiar with the series."

"Well…. Okay, fine." I say. I'm actually pretty good at Just Dance, so this will be a piece of cake.

"But we should both do a solo to warm up, and then the tiebreaker will be a duet. Deal?"

"Deal."

David puts the game in and selects it in the menu. We look through all of the songs, then decide which ones to do. David ends up doing People by AWOLNATION, and he was actually really good. He was definitely better than I thought he would be. I do Cover Up by Imagine Dragons, and the whole time I can feel David's eyes staring at me. After I'm done, we decide to do a warm up with a duet, since there is a different mode for duets in this version. We do Nicotine by Panic! At The Disco and Party Poison by My Chemical Romance for our warm ups.

"So, are you ready to get your butt kicked?" I cockily ask David.

"Never in your wildest dreams, Love." David sneers. We decide to do Just Give Me A Reason by P!nk and Nate Reuss. As we dance to the music, our bodies dance in unison, getting perfect on all of the moves. I find it kind of ironic that David, the psycho stalker, and I, the self harm freak, are dancing to this song. The song is all about imperfect people and their imperfect love. There's a line that says _We're not broken, just bent, and we can learn to love again, _and it seems so relatable. We are both 'bent' in a sense, so it seems fitting to dance to this song.

At the very end of the song, I trip on my own feet like an idiot and start to fall backwards. David catches me by the waist, and for a moment we stare into each other's eyes. As I look into David's bright green eyes, I see longing, lust, and… what might have been… love. David pulls me up slowly as he leans in. I don't know what to do. I can't breathe. I can't move. I can't think. All I can do is watch helplessly as David's lips meet mine. After a few moments of me not reacting, David slightly moves his lips from mine.

"Kiss back." He growls. I immediately unfreeze and spring into action. I kiss David back and wrap my arms around his neck. Our lips move in sync as David's arms rub up and down my back. Suddenly, the door opens, and Marsa starts to speak.

"Master, miss, it's time for dinne-" She stops talking mid- sentence as she realizes what we're doing. David and I break apart, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Oh, sorry master! I won't disturb you again." Marsa quickly closes the door and I can hear her running down the hallway. David laughs quietly as he lets go of me.

"You have no idea how long I've waited for that." David takes my hand and squeezes it reassuringly. We both look at the TV screen and see it still has our dance scores up.

"I won!" David says triumphantly.

"You only won because I tripped at the end!" I claim.

"Well, that doesn't change the fact I still won. And since I won, you have to do me a favor." I sigh.

"Fine. What do you want?" I ask.

"We'll see." David says mysteriously.

"Come on, let's go get some dinner." David leads me out of the game room, still holding my hand. As we're walking, I shed a single tear, but wipe it away before David notices. I shed a tear because that was my first kiss. My first kiss was stolen by my psycho stalker. Maybe I wouldn't care as much if it were my second or third kiss, but it was my first kiss. It's a memory that I will never forget. I mean, it wasn't horrible. It just felt…. Weird. I would relish that moment, though, because that was the first and the last time I felt comfortable around David.

At dinner, David is beaming. He talk about all sorts of things that no one really cares about, but he doesn't seem to notice that no one's listening. As Marsa and Ethan clear our plates, David suddenly slams his hands on the table, making everything jump.

"Oh! I forgot! I'm moving you upstairs now. You'll never have to see the cellar again."

"Thank you, David. That's really nice of you." I say, giving him a smile.

After dinner, David shows us our rooms. Mine is slightly bigger than Chloe's, but she didn't seem to notice. Both rooms have a walk-in closet already filled up with clothes and a connecting bathroom. My room is violet, and Chloe's is pink.

As David leaves my room to go to bed, he turns around.

"By the way, you can take the gauze off your stomach tonight. Try not to do anything that will open up the scar again, okay?" I nod and David smiles. Then he closes the door and I am left alone for the first time today.

I walk over to the bed and lay on it. It's really comfortable, and I feel myself slowly losing consciousness. Suddenly, my door opens and Chloe walks in the room, slamming the door shut.

"What were you thinking?" Chloe says loudly, but not loud enough that any one else could hear. I sit up abruptly, still on my bed.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, confused.

"The kiss!" Chloe says angrily.

"Marsa told me before you got to the dining room. We made a pact to stick together, to be wary of David, to not let him in. but lo and behold, you just totally disregard it and get all cozy with him!"

"I was acting, Chloe! I didn't want to kiss him. It just happened. I couldn't control it. I'm sorry." I plead.

"That's not a good enough excuse! You don't come back to the cellar last night until I'm asleep, which is saying something, since I was up for a while waiting for you, and now you're all buddy buddy with David! What happened?"

"You want to know what happened?!" I yell.

"This happened!" I pull up my shirt to reveal my stomach. The gauze held up fairly well, but a huge blot of blood still bled through.

"He told me it was because I was ignoring him! Now do you see? I couldn't let him think that way. If he continued to think I ignored him, he would go after you. I can't let that happen. If only one of us gets out of this hell hole, it has to be you. Please forgive me." Chloe looks at my stomach, shocked, and then does something completely unexpected. She hugs me.

Now, let me get this straight: Chloe is extremely claustrophobic. She can't handle tight spaces, and hates hugs. In fact, this is probably the second time she's ever hugged me in the five years I've been her best friend, the first time being after Laura was kidnapped.

I get over my initial shock after a second and hug her back. After a moment, we separate, and Chloe walks to the door. She looks back at me through the doorway and whispers something.

"Just remember not to fall for him." Then she closes the door, and I am left alone once again.

For a second, I just sit on the bed. And then I get up and change into pajamas and go into the bathroom. I look at myself for a few seconds before starting to unwrap the gauze from my stomach. I take my time, imagining what it will look like. I finally unwrap it all the way and throw the gauze in the garbage.

I look at the wound, and realize David carved letters into my stomach. It spells out one single word: _Always._

As I'm staring at the single word written on my stomach, I realize what David meant. I will always be stuck here with David. I will always be forced to act like I love David. I will always have to kiss David. I will always wake up in the morning and see David. I will always be David's, and David's only.

I quickly put my shirt down and leave the bathroom. I climb into bed, telling myself it's not true. I'll escape. I won't always be David's little pet. But in the back of my mind, there was still one tiny little seed of doubt. As I fall asleep, the seed of doubt asked me, _Are you sure?_

The answer, of course, was no.


	11. Chapter Ten

**Chapter Ten**

Another month went by, and a lot happened. Everyday after breakfast, I hang out with David. It's not as intimate as the Just Dance incident, though. Generally, we just play games or watch Doctor Who or something like that. We do kiss sometimes, but it's not as passionate as the first one.

And then after lunch, I go to the library to 'read,' when I'm actually hanging out with Ben. We always meet in the horror section to talk, joke, and play video games. We play a lot of video games. Ben is pretty quiet, until you get him talking about video games. We could have a discussion about which Legend Of Zelda game is the best that would last all day. Usually, I just watch him play video games, like the Pokemon game I caught him playing that day. It's usually the highlight of my day to hang out with Ben.

After dinner, I hang out with Chloe, or just get some time to myself. This is basically my day to day schedule. Well, at least until the kiss.

As usual, I happily walk to the library after lunch. As I walk up the steps to the second floor of the library, I suddenly get a feeling of foreboding. I stop walking and lean against the railing to breathe. After a few seconds, the feeling passes and I continue up the stairs.

I walk into the first row of books in the horror section, Ben and I's usual spot. I see Ben already there, as usual. He's not wearing his normal dress, a green hoodie and dark green pants. One day, I asked why he didn't always wear his Link outfit, and he said he only wears that on special occasions. This was one of those occasions.

I smile and sit next to Ben, who, at the moment, is playing Pokemon.

"Hey." I say, smiling with my chin down slightly. Even though Ben is taller than me, I have a longer torso, so I'm taller than him sitting down.

"Hey." Ben says, smiling back at me.

"Happy Halloween!" I exclaim, hugging Ben. He loves Halloween. Ben laughs and hugs me back before returning to his game.

"Happy Halloween, Juliette."

_He has the cutest laugh, _I think. I lean my head on Ben's shoulder as he plays Pokemon. I think of how nice it would be to run away with Ben. To live in the country, and spend every second with him, and never have to see David again. Maybe have some kids and-wait. What am I saying? I can't leave. Plus, Ben's dead. How could we have kids? I don't even like kids. Too high maintenance.

After a while, Ben closes his 3DS and turns to face me.

"Can I talk to you about something?" he asks.

"Sure, anything." I respond.

"So, I think I like this girl. She's really nice and cute, and I've liked her ever since I met her. But, I'm not sure if she likes me back. I want to tell her, but I don't know how. What should I do?"

"Well," I begin, "I think you should tell her. I'm sure she'll like you back. I mean, who wouldn't? You're smart, cool, kind, like video games, and really funny. You're a great guy and any girl would be lucky to have you." And that's when Ben kisses me.

I immediately kiss back and wrap my arms around Ben's neck. Ben tenderly wraps his arms around my waist as butterflies fill my stomach. Fireworks explode as our lips move in sync. This is much better than when I kiss David. With David, it feels so fake. So wrong. But this kiss with Ben, it feels so right. I am in total and utter harmony as I kiss Ben.

After a while, we break apart, gasping for breath. I immediately long for Ben's sweet lips on mine again.

"That was… Perfect." I breathe.

"You're perfect." Ben says. This time, I kiss him.

Once again, we break apart, and this time I glance down at my watch. It's 8PM. I look back up at Ben and smile. And then I process the information. It's 8PM.

"Crap, I'm late to dinner. I have to go. Bye!" I say, standing up. I give Ben a goodbye kiss and run towards the stairs. Right before I disappear down the stairs, I turn back and wave to Ben, who is just staring at me awestruck. I fly down the stairs and run out of the library, not bothering to close the door.

As I'm running down the hallway, I think of how much trouble I'll get in. Dinner starts at 7, which means I'm an hour late. Surely I wasn't kissing Ben that long? No, it can't be. I probably just lost track of time while I was watching him play Pokemon. I hope.

Just as I get to the main room, someone pushes me from the side, causing me to fall down. I look up to see a very, very furious David.

"What the hell was that?!" David screams, causing me to flinch.

"You don't show up for dinner, so I decide to check the security cameras. Then I see you with that 'Link' guy. I've seen you with him before, so I figured you just lost track of time. But then you go and kiss him! Not only once, oh no. then I might have forgiven him. But three times! And you obviously don't bother to fight back! Why, Juliette? Why?!" I stay silent, which just makes David even more furious.

"Fine then." He says, cracking his knuckles.

"We'll do this the hard way." An evil grin spreads on David's face as he steps on my left wrist. I scream in agony as David digs his heel into my wrist.

"WHERE IS HE?!" David screams.

"Who?!" I cry out. David puts more and more pressure on my wrist, until I hear a loud snap. I look over and see a bloody bone sticking out from David's shoe.

"You know who! Ethan!" Of course. What other guy could get in here? Plus, Ben and Ethan have a similar face shape and hair color.

"I DON"T KNOW!" I cry out sharply.

"Leave her alone!" A voice says to my right, and David and I turn our heads to see Ethan.

"You." David growls menacingly. He steps off of my wrist and stalk towards Ethan. Once he's close enough, David punches at Ethan's face, which he blocks. Ethan throws a punch and hits David square in the jaw. Blood starts to pour out of David's mouth as he smiles evilly and rams his head into Ethan's stomach. Ethan lands on the ground and David throws punch after punch after punch on Ethan's face and stomach. All I can do is stare in horror as David punches Ethan so hard in the jaw that I hear a sickly crack and blood and teeth fly out of Ethan's mouth.

David stands up and takes a gun out of his pocket. First, he shoots Ethan's feet, then his hands, then finally points the gun at Ethan's head.

"David, please." I plead.

"You don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do." David says, gritting his teeth.

"He's keeping us apart, Juliette. You can't be with me until he's gone. I knew I should've gotten rid of him sooner. I have to do this."

"NO!" I scream, but it's too late. David pulls the trigger, and Ethan goes limp. Marsa shrieks and runs to Ethan, Chloe right behind her. I didn't even notice them before, but they probably came when they heard the screaming.

"Ethan? Ethan!" Marsa screams, pounding on his chest as she sits next to him.

"Ethan….. Ethan, please…. Ethan." She says, and I see a single tear fall unto Ethan's face.

Marsa silently stands up and walk towards David. She raises her hand as she walks, as if she's going to slap him.

"You son of a bi-" Chloe runs behind Marsa and holds her back.

"You asshole! You abduct my siblings, kill my sister, and keep us here for six years, and then kill my only living family left! You don't deserve to live! I hope you rot in hell for all you're worth!" David just takes Marsa, her kicking and screaming, and throws her in the cellar. Then he picks me up, since I'm still lying on the ground, and looks at Chloe.

"Go to your room. Now!" Chloe nods hurriedly and runs up the staircase to her room. David carries me into the kitchen and sets me on the counter. He gets out a large first aid kit, and I sense this isn't the fist time this has happened.

David calmly pops my bone back into place, and I wince. Then he wraps up my wrist tightly and puts it in a makeshift sling.

"You'll have to sleep with me tonight." David says, and I can feel the color in my face drain.

"No, no, not like that." He says, realizing what I was thinking.

"Just the act of two people resting next to each other. That's all." David helps me off of the counter and we start walking upstairs. The entire time up the staircase, David is holding my unharmed hand. We make it to David's room and David sets me on his bed gently. He pulls the cover on top of me, then takes off his shirt and crawls in next to me. I feel extremely out of place as David wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me close to him. It feels so… wrong.

"Goodnight." David whispers in my ear.

"Goodnight." I answer back hoarsely. David falls asleep almost immediately. I, on the other hand, don't.

I stay awake for hours thinking about how my life has come to this. Going from being friendly and cool, everyone's best friend, to sleeping next to a psycho/ stalker/ kidnapper/ murderer.

I think of my family. My mom, dad, and two older brothers. Do they miss me? Are they searching for me? Are they worried about me? Do they even care at all? These questions and many more flood my mind.

I also think of all of my friends that weren't at the party. At school, I wasn't exactly 'popular,' but I did have a lot of friends. I wouldn't want to be popular, anyways. The popular people at my school are basically just a group of people who pretend they're friends, but then stab each other in the back as soon as they get the chance. It's stupid, really.

I even kind of miss my enemies. They would bully me mentally all of the time, and just bother me in general, but at least they didn't do this.

I miss being able to do whatever I want, when I want. David has literally sucked up the small amount of happiness I had left in my life: freedom. The only reason why I'm even trying to cling on to life is Chloe. Without me, David will kill Chloe, and I can't let that happen, under any circumstances. Chloe has a family, lots of friends, a home, a life. I, on the other way, don't. I'll be trapped in this hell hole for the rest of my life.

And then there's Ben. Sweet, kind, caring Ben. Ben is who I want to be with, not David. But I don't really have a choice. I can't be with Ben. Not in this lifetime.

As I finally fall asleep, I have the strong feeling of complete and utter despair. I think one more thought before I close my eyes and see only darkness.

_I will never get out._


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Chapter Eleven**

_ I walk into the hotel room, coming back from a very lovely dinner in the café next door. Laura went with me, but decided to go sight seeing before coming back to the room. I sigh as I go through my drawers and pick out a pair of pajamas. I go into the bathroom and change quickly, not wanting to miss the Doctor Who episode about to air. This will be the first time I will ever watch Doctor Who in the country in which it originated: Great Britain. London, to be exact._

_ I walk out of the bathroom and sit on my bed. I look at the clock on the wall. 7:52. The episode will start in eight minutes. Where is Laura?_

"_Juliette." I hear a voice say behind me. I turn around and see David. How did he get in here? I was in Laura's and I's hotel room, and I'm pretty sure I locked the door._

_ "Oh. H-Hi David." I stutter nervously._

_ "What are you doing here?"_

_ "I have a confession. I like you. A lot. In fact, I think I might be in love with you. Will you be mine?" As David says this, he steps towards me, and I step back. This continues until my back hits the wall and David can reach me._

_ "Oh, David, that's really sweet of you," I say slowly, "but I'm afraid I can't return your feelings." I brace myself as I finish my sentence. David is only inches away from me now, and seems extremely hurt and angry. He looks straight into my eyes and whispers quietly._

_ "Why not?" There is, of course, a thousand reasons why. I only met David two weeks ago. And frankly, I wouldn't even consider him a friend. Just a friendly stranger. And then, he went from friendly stranger to creepy stranger really fast. He would text and call me like 30 times every day. And I don't even know how he got my number. I never gave it to him._

_I swallow down the lump in my throat and respond._

_ "I'm too young to fall in love. I'm only 12. And I mean, I just met you a couple of weeks ago. We're taking this too fast. Maybe if I was a little older, we could make it work. But, I'm not. I'm sorry."_

_ "Laura's making you say these things, isn't she?" David asks._

_ "Yes, that's it. The connection we have is so real, so strong, you must feel it. Laura's just jealous. She's jealous that you found love before she did, so she wants to break us apart." David slowly gains more and more confidence in what he's saying as he continues._

_ "I mean, you're not that young. And I'm only 16. That's only a four year difference. Laura is just keeping us apart. I always knew she couldn't be trusted…"_

_ "No, that's not it." I interject._

_ "Laura would never do that. She's my best friend." Just then, Laura walks through the door._

_ "Hey, Juliette, did you know that this hotel has a pool tha-"_

_ "You." David growls._

_ "Oh, uh, hi David." Laura says, clearly uncomfortable._

_ "Juliette, you never told me he was coming over."_

_ David looks at me sadly and says, "I'm sorry, Love. I have to do this." Before I have time to process what David just said, he hits me over the head with a lamp and I fall to the ground. As I'm losing consciousness, I see David go over to Laura and put something over her head._

_ Then I black out._

_ When I wake up, I have a raging headache and a bad taste in my mouth. I look around the empty hotel room in confusion. Where's Laura? Then I remember the events from earlier and stand up frantically. I run over to the hotel phone and dial the front desk._

_ "Hello, miss. How may I help you?" The lady at the front desk says through the phone. It's the same person who greeted me when I came back from the Café with David a couple weeks ago…._

_ "I need to call the police."_

_ "Why?"_

_ "My friend has been kidnapped."_

_ "Oh. Right away, miss."_

_ The police come a few minutes later. They bring along 2 men with them, which they call Spencer and Johnny. Spencer is very tall, with dark curly hair and eyes that seem to change from blue to green. Johnny is shorter, with grayish blonde hair and a sort of kind feeling to him. They ask me a lot of questions, including what Laura and David look like and when David knocked me out. I tell them the whole story, from meeting David at the café, to him kidnapping Laura. Just as they're about to leave, I remember something._

_ "Hey, ?" I ask. He turns around stiffly and stares at me._

_ "What?"_

_ "Do you remember that day, I think about a week ago, that I passed you on the street?" Spencer's eyes widen in understanding._

_ "That guy you were talking to, was he…. David?" I nod. _

"_Did David ever mention a Jack Uragartie?" I shrug._

"_He might've…. Why?" Spencer runs out of the room, Johnny right on his heels. Even though I'm confused who 'Jack Uragartie' is, the situation gives me a glimmer of hope. That Spencer knows exactly what David looks like. Maybe with that information, They'll find him sooner._

_ They didn't._

_ The police start searching for any sign of Laura or David, but find nothing. Not even the slightest trace. It's as if they dropped off the face of the Earth._

_ A week passes. Nothing happens._

_ As I'm getting ready for bed in my new hotel, I hear a knock on the door._

_ "Come in." I say, assuming it's the police or maid service. The police seem to come everyday to ask me more questions._

_ "Juliette." I freeze. I could never forget that voice._

_ I turn around, and there's David, the guy the police have been searching for a week. And man, does he look tired. He has bags under his eyes, and his hair is all tussled up._

_ "How did you find me?" I ask. I changed hotels multiple times just to avoid this situation. Apparently, it didn't work._

_ "That doesn't matter. All that matters is that you and I can finally be together. Laura's gone now. Nothing is stopping us from being together."_

_ "David, I told you I don't feel that way about you." I say. David laughs. Before all of this happened, I thought his laugh was really cute. Now it just sends shivers up my spine._

_ "Of course you do, Love. You're just afraid to admit it." David responds. I rub my head with my hands, frustrated._

_ "David, I need to know where Laura is."_

_ "No, you don't."_

_ "Yes, I do."_

_ "No, you really don't."_

_ "David, please!" I cry out._

_ "She's my best friend." I feel a tear start to fall down my cheek. David tries to comfort me, but I push him away._

_ "Get away from me. I don't even like you." I turn around to grab the phone, but David turns me back around and pushes me on the bed. He takes his shirt off, and I realize I could never overpower him. He's too strong. David gets on top of me on the bed, putting his legs on either side of me._

_ "No. We were made to be together, Juliette. You just have to realize that." I try to get away, but David pins my arms down._

_ "David, please." I plead, tears rushing down my face._

_ "It's alright, Love." David coos._

_ "As long as we're together."_

_ Suddenly, the door gets knocked down and a bunch of people flood the room._

_ "This is the police! Get off the bed and put your hands up!" David is pulled off of me, and I gasp for breathe. I didn't even realize I was holding it._

_ "Are you alright?" asks an officer. I nod my head, unsure if I really am alright._

_ The police officers handcuff David and drag him out of my room. As they're dragging him out of my room, he sticks his head back in my doorway and yells "This isn't over! I'll be back!" And then he's gone._

_ The remaining police officers ask me even more questions, and I tell them all about this episode with David. Then they reassure me that David is going to jail for a very long time, and I'll never see him again. That night, I fly back to the states. David is sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping, and possibly murder, of Laura Kristoff. He never does tell anyone where Laura is._

_ After a couple of months of searching, they pronounce Laura dead. At her funeral, they put memories of her in the casket instead of a body. I put in her journal full of fanfictions in her casket. She had just finished the fanfic she was working on a few days before we went to London for the summer. Before we met David. Before her life was unfairly taken from her._

_ After a while, things settle down. I start highschool without one of my best friends. Somehow, I end up in the school play, and gain lots of new friends. But I never forget I'm the reason Laura is gone. She's gone, and she will never come back. If I hadn't insisted on her going to London with me, she wouldn't have been in danger in the first place. She would've stayed home and moved on with her life, not going to London and ending it. Laura is dead because of me, and I vow to never forgive myself._

_ I also vow to never put a guy before my friends. Ever. And finally, I vow to never, ever, under any circumstances, fall in love. Because the only thing that comes out of love, is pain._


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Chapter Twelve**

A month has passed since Ethan died. It is now early December. I haven't heard from Ben since that day. I haven't even caught a glance of him. He just….. Disappeared. I guess he might feel guilty about not helping Ethan. I certainly am mad at him about it. I mean, he could've saved Ethan. He could've stepped up and told David it wasn't Ethan, and David couldn't hurt him since he's already dead. But I can see why he didn't do that. Then his whole cover would be blown, and David would probably lock me up in a closet or something. And I still miss him a lot. He was my only support, besides Chloe and Marsa.

Speaking of Marsa, she's not doing very well. She's still not over Ethan's death, and I really can't blame her. He was the only support she had since they were 10, and now he's gone. Ethan's death hit Marsa really hard. For almost a week afterwards, she refused to come out of the cellar. She only came out when David threatened to kill Chloe and I if she didn't come out. After that, David moved her upstairs so he could keep a closer eye on her. Even now, I can hear her crying when I pass by her room at night.

Chloe is probably doing the best out of the three of us. Chloe has always been the level-headed one in situation like this. For example, when we almost got expelled highschool for accidentally spray painting our science teacher's classroom (long story). Or, when there's a pop quiz in math class. Either way, Chloe knows to stay calm in a bad situation. She pushes Marsa and I through each grueling day. She helps us hold unto reality. And that's really, really important. I don't know where Marsa and I would be without Chloe. And I am forever grateful for her guidance.

David's even worse now. The smallest little thing will make him blow up. Whenever David gets mad at something, he doesn't beat the person who made him mad. Oh, no. He takes it out on me. That night, he carves more things on my skin. But, of course, David has way too many anger issues, so he cuts me a lot. Heck, I'm in the torture room almost every night. I'm surprised I haven't died of blood loss yet. My skin is like a paper full of doodles. David carves on my legs, my arms, and my back, though he tends to stay away from my stomach, saying it bleeds too much. I know the real reason why, though. He wants to emphasize the _Always _scar, make sure it doesn't get lost in a sea of scars.

Me? I'm doing okay, I guess. Could be worse. I'm better than Marsa, at least. I don't self harm that much. I don't really need to, with David doing it for me. Sometimes, I get him mad on purpose just so he'll beat me up. So physically, I'm not that hot right now. But mentally? I'm even worse. I feel like I'm partly to blame for Ethan's death. I mean, Ben only kissed me once, and David said he might've forgiven him if it was just the one. But then I have to go and kiss him two more times! I really wasn't thinking on how it would affect everyone else. Of course I wasn't thinking about that. I never think. And when I do think, it's always something selfish, like using up all of my parent's money for clothes and electronics. I know I'm being selfish. I know I should stop. But I never do. And that's another reason why I hate myself. And now, I'm the cause of two people's murders: Laura and Ethan. If my mental state ever reaches an all time low (not the band), it would probably be now.

So the last month has definitely been a downward spiral for all of the residents of the mountain estate. I hope things cheer up soon, though. If it keeps getting worse and worse, I don't know how much more I can take. I could break any moment. But, at least this didn't happen to someone innocent. At least I saved someone else from all of the pain and sorrow. At least I did that much.

Right?


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Chapter Thirteen**

After breakfast, I decide to go to the game room to play some Mariokart. Man, I love that game. I used to play it every day when I was younger, but a few years ago, our Wii feel while we were playing it and the disc got scratched. Now the disc won't even start up. I remember crying my eyes out that day. And yeah, instead of crying over losing her Barbie, I cried over my game breaking. Or the deaths of fictional characters. Curse you, Moffat!

Anyways, I start to play as Princess Peach. As I'm playing the game, I notice stuff I've never seen before in the game. In some of the race tracks, I could see a fire in the distance, or sometimes all of the character's eyes would just look like dark pits.

Eventually, I have a race on this track that looks similar to a farm scene. Just as I cross the finish line in first place, the game freezes. The obstacles, the characters, everything, it just… stops. Everything except for a fire in the middle of a field right next to the track. And, all of the characters are staring at me with these dark pits where their eyes should be. Not at my Character, Princess Peach. Me. It's as if the characters can see me through the screen. Not knowing what to do, I press the B button and Princess Peach jumps out of her car.

_This can't be right,_ I think. _Characters can't get out of their cars._ I make Peach walk towards the field. Surprisingly, when we reach the fence, she jumps it and continues closer to the fire. As Peach walks towards the fire, I realize that the thing on fire is a person. They're still alive, I can tell that, but they're not trying to put out the fire. They're just lying on the ground, doing nothing. When Peach is standing right next to the person, I press the A button and the camera shifts so I can see the person's face. It's Link.

_Ben,_ I think. Suddenly, Link's eyes open up and he grabs Peaches' arm. Peach catches on fire and falls down next to Link. The screen goes dark and the game lets out an ear-piercing scream. After a moment, the game restarts, but there's only one save file. It's Mii(avatar) looks like Link on fire, and the name is Ben.

I immediately turn off the Wii and go on the computer. I go on Chrome and type in . This is the conversation.

Ben?

**Hello Juliette.**

Ben, I miss you! It's so horrible here!

**I know.**

Where were you?

**I was planning. We can't meet in the library anymore, it's too dangerous.**

Then where should we meet?

**In the courtyard. I gigged the cameras so it always shows an empty courtyard.**

Okay, I have to go now, it's time for lunch. And we both know what happened the last time I was late for a meal.

**Yeah. About that… I'm sorry I didn't help Ethan. I just couldn't blow my cover.**

It's okay, I forgive you. See you after dinner.

**Bye.**

Then the computer shuts itself off and I sigh. I'm happy that I know that Ben didn't leave. Just another reason to keep trying.

I happily leave the game room and half skip to the dining room.

"Hello Love." David says.

"Hello David, Chloe." I say, sitting down happily. David looks at me skeptically.

"Why so happy?" He asks.

"Why so serious?" I ask back, making Chloe laugh. We both love Batman. David narrows his eyes at me and smirks.

"Touché." He says, taking me by surprise. I thought I was going to get it for that sly comment. I guess we're all in a good mood today.

As we're eating our food, David talks excitedly.

"After lunch, all four of us are going to put up the Christmas decorations. We'll put tinsel and lights in all of the rooms and put the Christmas tree right next to the staircase. We should be able to get it all finished if we work together. Let's get started right after lunch!"

After lunch, we get to work. Marsa and I put tinsel on the stairwell as David and Chloe put it on the entranceways of the living room and dining room.

"Is David always this cheerful during Christmas?" I ask Marsa curiously. Marsa shakes her head.

"No. This is the first time he's even mentioned it… You do realize it's because you're here, right?" I shake my head sadly, looking at David. Does he really like me that much?

After we're done with the tinsel, David sets up the large tree so the stair case wraps around it. Then we put the lights on it. After that, David and I put ornaments on the bottom of the tree, while Marsa and Chloe use the stairs to put them at the top. While we're putting up the ornaments, David starts to talk about how he loved Christmas as a kid.

"I remember that every Christmas eve, we would put out cookies and milk for Santa Claus, and then go to bed. I would always try to sneak down stairs to see Santa, but I always crashed before he came. When I woke up in the morning, the cookies and milk would be gone, and a mountain of presents would be under the tree. One by one, we would open up the presents and see what was inside. It would just be me, my mom, and my dad. After the presents, we would have a huge feast. We would spend the rest of the day talking and enjoying each other's company. We were the happiest family you could ever imagine." David stops and smiles sadly.

"But then everything changed. My mom died in a car crash with a drunk driver. I was also in the car, but I got out unscathed. I was only ten then. My dad, he couldn't handle it. He started drinking, a lot. Everyday after work, he would go to a bar, come home, and beat me. He blamed me for my mom's death. I spent Christmas hiding in my closet hoping my dad didn't find me. Four years of terror. I never thought I would make it that far, but I did," David then stops working and looks me in the eyes, "and then I met you."

And that's when it hits me. I drop the ornament I was carrying on the floor and it smashes into a million pieces. I remember when I met David.

_"No! Stop it, Jeffrey! Stop!" I scream, scared out of my wits. We were at the park, and my brother was pushing me on the swing. But he was pushing me too hard, and I started falling off the swing._

_ "No! This is fun!" Jeffrey says, laughing. My oldest brother, Kevin, starts walking towards us, and I sigh in relief._

_ "Yay! Kevin's come to save me!" I say happily. Except, he didn't. He went right up to Jeffrey and says, "Hey, Jeffery! Mom wants to know when we can sell your zits on eBay!" That makes Jeffrey mad. He's 14 years old, and very self conscious of his acne. It didn't help that Kevin called him 'Jeffery' instead of 'Jeffrey." He gets really mad when people do that._

_ Jeffrey starts to chase 16 year old Kevin around, which was kind of funny at first. Until, of course, they run through the swings, pushing me down unto the ground in the process. I land on my bum and tears start to form in my eyes. My brothers, of course, take no notice to me and start climbing up the spiderweb like little kids._

_ I put my head between my knees and start to cry. No one takes any notice to me as tears rush down my face and unto the ground. My parents are probably talking to someone else, and my brothers never even pay attention to me. I don't even notice the sound of shoes crunching on the wood chips as my tears run down my face._

_ "Are you okay?" A voice asks in front of me. I look up and see a guy, about Jeffrey's age, with spiky black hair and bright green eyes. I shake my head, sniffling. The guy holds out his hand and I hesitantly take it. He pulls me up off of the ground and I mumble 'Thank you' before looking down at the ground._

_ "What's your name?" He asks. I look back up at him._

_ "Juliette." I say, wiping my nose on my sleeve._

_ "Well Juliette," He says, holding out his hand, "I'm David." I take his hand and shake it._

_ "You have pretty eyes." I say. David blushes slightly and smiles._

_ "Thanks. No one's ever told me that before." He says._

_ "Well, they should." I say, smiling back._

_ "So, do you like to swing?" David asks. I nod my head._

_ "I'll push you if you want." I hesitate. Should I really trust him? I shrug._

_ "Sure." I sit back on the swing and David starts to push me. I swing back and forth gently, and start to laugh. I love the wind in my hair and the feeling of weightlessness. David and I just stay at the swings in a comfortable silence, him pushing me, and me laughing every now and then._

_ After about ten minutes of this, a car pulls up with an angry looking man driving it. David stops pushing me and I get off the swing. I turn around and see David is extremely pale and deep in thought._

_ "What's wrong?" I ask, making David jump._

_ "Oh, nothing, my dad just got here." He says sadly._

_ "You mean the mean looking guy in the car?" I ask. David laughs and nods._

_ "Yes, the mean looking guy in the car. I'll see you later, okay?"_

_ "Okay." I say, reluctant to let my swing partner go._

_ "Bye!" I say before hugging David. After a few moments, he slowly wraps his arms around me._

_ "Bye." He chokes out, before turning around and running to the car. I walk around, looking for my mom. I find her and tell her about David._

_ "Juliette," my mom says sternly, "you know what I say about talking to people you don't know. He could've kidnapped you!"_

_ "David would never do that!" I say, defending my actions._

_ "He's too nice!" My mom shakes her head._

_ "Just promise not to do it again." She says, crossing her arms._

_ "I promise." I say, sighing._

_ "Good. Now let's go get something to eat." We all go in the car and drive away. And as we're driving away from the park, I reassure myself David wouldn't have harmed me. And then I wonder when I'll see him again. I hope I see him soon. Maybe he'll come back to the park tomorrow?_

_ But, unfortunately, he didn't, and I never saw him again._

It all makes sense now. That's how David met me. I didn't recognize him in London, because he had dyed his hair black the first time I saw him. David didn't just pass me on the street or something. We actually interacted with each other. David needed help when he met me. He was abused by his dad, and was looking for something to hold unto. Even the tiniest sliver of hope. And that sliver of hope was me.

I look at David in disbelief for a second, wondering how I didn't figure it out sooner. How didn't I recognize his eyes? Am I really that daft? After a moment, I do something totally unexpected. I run towards David, ignoring the crunch of glass under my shoes, and hug him.

David, surprised at first, gets over his shock and wraps his arms around my waist. I lean my chin on his shoulder as a single tear slowly falls down my face.

"I remember." I whisper in David's ear. David immediately understands and tightens his grip around my waist. And for the first time since David took me, I want him to. I want him to be that 14 year old boy who helped me up when no one else did. I want him to be that kid who pushed me on the swings one day and then vanished. Now I know that this isn't entirely David's fault. His bad childhood led up to this. And, while I still think what David did was wrong, I can't help but feel sorry for him.

After a few minutes, we let go of each other, and I can see that David also has tears in his eyes. I smile at him and turn around to see a very confused Marsa and Chloe. I smile at them and mouth 'I'll explain later' to them. I turn back around and see David has a box in his hands.

"Juliette, will you do the honors and put the angel on top of the tree?" David asks me. I smile and nod.

"I'd love to." We walk up the stairs until we reach the top of the tree, which is about halfway up the stairs. David talks a beautiful ceramic angel out of the box and hands it to me. I look at it for a few seconds, and then lean over the railing. I gently set the angel on the tree and admire it.

Just as I'm about to go back over the railing, I feel someone push my back and I fall over the railing in between the stairs and the tree. As I'm falling, I hear someone scream and someone else yell my name.

_Maybe I'll finally leave this cruel world, _I think.

And then I black out.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Chapter Fourteen**

I wake up on a cold metal surface and a faint beeping noise meets my ears. I open my eyes and immediately close them again because of a blinding light. I try to open my eyes again, only squinting this time, and eventually my eyes adjust. I move my head side to side taking in my surroundings, and see that I'm in a… hospital room. How could that be? If David ever took me to the hospital, we both know they would ID me and arrest David. But here I am, in the hospital. I notice David in the corner of the room arguing with some guy I don't recognize.

"We have to take her off life support." The guy says.

"She's not going to make it."

"No!" David yells, and the guy flinches.

"I'm in love with her. She can't just die. It's my fault she fell, so I need to fix this. I won't let you take her off of life support, not in a million years."

_David's the one who pushed me?_ I think. _But why?_

"David." I groan, feeling a sharp pain in my stomach. I look down and see my hospital gown is covered in blood.

"Juliette." David says, noticing I'm awake. He runs up next to me, the other guy right behind him.

"Juliette! You're alive!" David exclaims, kissing me.

"David, I don't feel too good. Am I….. am I dying?" I ask.

"No." David says, shaking his head.

"You're going to be fine." Suddenly, the beeping stops, holding out a long screech instead.

"David, we're losing her. We need to get her to the emergency room!" The other guy says urgently. A bunch of people come in and take me out of the room, David and the guy walking briskly beside me.

"Juliette, please don't go." David pleads.

"It's not your time yet. You have so much to live for. Think about our future. We were going to get married, have kids, grow old together. You just have to hold on. I love you." And then the surgery room door closes and I'm stuck with a bunch of strangers.

As the people are hurrying and hurrying to try to save me, I get this pull in my gut. It's a strange feeling, one I have never experienced before. The pull gets stronger and stronger and stronger until I can barely stand it. The pull is tempting me to let go, to stop trying, to let it overcome me. My eyes get droopy, and I reluctantly close them. I'm guessing the people are surgeons and they're trying to save me, but I can't feel it. I can't feel anything. All I can feel is that strange pull.

_Maybe dying won't be so bad. _I think.

_Goodbye Chloe. Goodbye Ben. Goodbye Marsa. Goodbye World._

And then I let the darkness consume me forever.

I wake up again, but this time, not on a cold metal surface. It feels soft and fluffy, like I'm sleeping on a cloud. I open my eyes and sit up, looking around the room. It's completely white, except for a bouquet of roses on the bed stand. There is a rose every color, even some colors I've never seen before. And then I look down and gasp. I'm wearing a long white satin dress that is probably the most comfortable thing I've ever worn. And the bed I'm laying on…. _Is _a cloud? That's what it certainly looks like.

I stand up slowly, a million questions running through my mind. Where am I? How did I get here? Why am I here? Did I die? Is this heaven? Or Hell? And why is there nothing in this room?

It was true. Besides the bed and bed stand, there was only a window and a door. I walk over to the door and try to open it, but it's locked. I back over to the bed and put my head in my hands. What is happening? I'm so confused and disoriented I barely even notice that my hair hides my face in soft curls, something my hair usually never does.

Suddenly, the door opens and a familiar figure appears in the doorway. Brownish skin, gray shorts and shirt, hair straightened and pulled back. She walks in with the attitude and sass the level of Gerard Way, and a mouth like his too. I look into her eyes and see mischief and happiness. It can only be one person.

"Alisa." I breathe out, running over to her. I hug her tightly, as if I would let go, and she would disappear again.

"Alisa, I missed you so much." I say, tears forming in my eyes.

"I missed you too, Juliette." Alisa says, laughing. We pull apart and Alisa looks down at my dress.

"You look beautiful." She comments, making me blush.

"So do you." I answer back, smiling. Alisa rolls her eyes.

"Believe me, when I got here, I was not the happiest camper that I was in a dress." I laugh. That's the Alisa I know.

"Now, let's go into the hallway, shall we? The lack of color in this room makes me want to puke." Alisa leads me out of the room and into a large hallway. On the right side, are large windows stretching up to the ceiling. Outside the windows, I see a beautiful silver and gold fountain, depicting a hand forming an orb made of rock and water. And, amazingly, the rock and water are just floating there, with nothing supporting them.

On the other side of the hall, are paintings. Lots of them. They are all masterfully made and very beautiful. I wonder where they got all of them. We pass a particular piece of art that looks like the style of Vincent Van Gogh, but it's a painting I don't recognize.

"Alisa, who did this?" I ask, gesturing to the painting.

"Oh, Vincent did." She says nonchalantly.

"Wait, Vincent Van Gogh is still painting up here?" I ask. Alisa nods.

"What else would he do, write? I've actually met him, and he's a very nice fellow, but his writing is rubbish, to put it nicely." We continue down the hall until we reach a part of the hallway where the walls stretch out so people can sit and chat. Instead of a painting on the left wall, however, there is a large mirror. We stand facing the mirror, and I gasp at what I see inside of it.

In the reflection, I see a teenage girl with curly, long, dark brown hair that reaches down to her chest. She has soft chocolate brown eyes that show happiness and excitement, and a bit of amusement. She smiles a smile that shows her beautiful pearly white teeth and dimples. Her face is clear of any blemishes and has a natural, healthy glow to it. She has curves in all of the right places, which are complimented by her white satin dress. The girl in the reflection is beautiful. And she's me.

After a few moments of staring in the mirror in wonder, I finally turn to Alisa.

"So… Where are we?" I ask.

"This is the passing of the realms." Alisa explains.

"This is where you go after you die. Here, they determine whether you go to Heaven or Hell. Eternal paradise or eternal torture. A blessing better than life or a fate worse than death." I nod my head in understanding.

"So, I died?"

"Yes." Alisa says sadly.

"That's why I'm here to talk to you, actually. Very occasionally, someone will die before their time. They die very unexpectedly, usually because of some else's rash decision. They are given the choice to go back to Earth and continue their life, or stay here and face judgment now." I'm shocked.

"I-I can go back?" I ask. Alisa nods.

"But why would I want to go back? I'm tortured down there." I say.

"You have some unfinished business to attend to. Without you, what do you think happens to Chloe and Marsa? It doesn't end well, I can tell you that. Look, I'm not saying you have to go back. It's completely your choice. I'm just saying that there are people on Earth who are counting on you." I look back at the mirror.

"Can I ask you something?" I ask, turning my head slightly to look at Alisa.

"Ask away." She answers, smiling.

"What is Ben? He died, but he's still on Earth. Is that what I'll become if I go back? A ghost? A glitch? And apparition?" Alisa sighs.

"I knew you were going to ask that." Alisa shakes her head slightly and continues.

"Ben is a very special case. When he died, his soul latched unto his Majora's Mask game instead of coming here. When the guy who bought Ben's game uploaded those videos about his game play, he spread Ben's soul like a virus. Every time someone watched one of the videos, Ben would get a little bit stronger. Eventually, Ben became so powerful, he created an actual body for himself. The only way for him to passover, however, is to burn his original Majora's Mask game. And he needs help from a human. A live human." I nod my head. I finally understand how to help Ben.

I turn my head back to look in the mirror again. I look at myself for so long, my eyes get crossed. I just can't believe that's me.

_You could stay. _I think. _You could stay here with Alisa and always look like that. And then, soon enough, Chloe and Marsa would come here and we would all be happy._ I mentally shake my head.

_But what about Ben? _I answer myself. _I'm the only one that knows how to help him._ And then I make up my mind.

"I'll do it." I say.

"I'll go back." Alisa smiles so wide I think her jaw might break.

"Great. Let's go to the departure department." Alisa leads me further down the hallway to a very large, open room. On the left side, is a large elevator labeled 'Hell.' On the right side, an identical elevator labeled 'Heaven.' And, on the opposite wall, lies a smaller elevator labeled 'Earth.'

"The elevator to Earth is so small since it's not used nearly as much as the other two." Alisa explains as we make our way to the back wall. As we're walking, I notice that even without the labels, it's pretty obvious which elevator goes to where. The elevator to Hell is surrounded with a bunch of grubby looking characters. They are all in chains and are being whipped from what I'm guessing is a demon. The other side, tough, is a totally different story. Everyone is calmly and orderly going into the Heaven elevator, and everyone is laughing and joking and getting to know each other. An angel is greeting and helping everyone through the elevator.

Eventually, Alisa and I make it to the vacant back wall.

"Well, this is where we say goodbye." Alisa says sadly. I pull her into a tight hug, reluctant to let go. We pull apart slowly. I walk into the elevator and turn around. Alisa turns around and starts walking back to the other elevators. Just as the doors are closing, I remember something I forgot to ask Alisa. I shove my arm between the doors, hoping this elevator will work like the ones at Earth and open back up. The elevator door opens back up and I yell to Alisa.

"Alisa! Wait!" Alisa turns back around.

"Yes?"

"Did you get to Heaven or Hell?" I ask.

"Juliette, do you really think they would've let me talk to you if I went to Hell?" Alisa asks, laughing. I smile.

"True." Alisa and I wave to each other as the elevators start to close again. Just as they're about to close completely, I yell out a quick "Goodbye!" and Alisa smiles and turns around. And then the elevator doors close shut completely.

The elevator starts going down as I wonder what will happen now. Seeing as I'm the only one in the elevator, I walk to the back and lean against the wall. I slide down to the floor and my eyes start to droop. I'm really tired. I should take a nap. Right before I fall asleep, I wonder when I'll see Alisa again.

I can tell you right now, I wouldn't see her for a very long time.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Chapter Fifteen**

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

My eyes fly open and I sit up quickly, gasping for breathe. I look around. Where am I? This is definitely _not _the hospital. I'm in a small yellow room with red curtains. I'm in the front of the room, while there are rows of chairs to my right. The whole place looks kind of cheesy. There's a beeping noise through the doorway and the right that sounds somewhat like a microwave. I look down and see I'm wearing a black dress with red ribbons cascading down my legs. And I'm sitting in a…. Coffin? Wow. It concerns me how close it was between me coming back and them burying me.

I slowly step out of the coffin, but something falls on the floor. I turn around and see a small box wrapped in red wrapping paper and a green bow.

_It must have fallen out of the coffin. _I think. That does make sense. I did fall a few weeks before Christmas. I wonder where everyone is. I hope I'm not too late.

"Juliette." A familiar voice says. I turn around and see David looking like he just met a ghost. Which, he kind of did.

"Close your mouth." I say jokingly.

"You'll catch flies." David runs over to me and envelopes me in a bone crushing hug.

"You were dead." David cries into my shoulder.

"Your heart stopped beating. You stopped breathing. You were dead."

"I know." I say.

"I killed you Juliette. I just wasn't thinking. I wanted to show you that you need me, that I can help you. But you fell too fast, I couldn't catch you, I-"

"Shhh, it's okay." I interject.

"I'm here now, and that's all that matters."

"I'm so so sorry Juliette." David says sorrowfully.

"It's okay. Don't be." Then I do something I never thought I would do. I look straight into David's eyes, and I kiss him.

David immediately kisses back, closing the space between our bodies. I wrap my arms around his neck as our lips move softly and slowly against each other. We pull apart and I give David a smile, which he returns. All of a sudden, Chloe and Marsa appear in the doorway shocked.

"Juliette!" They both say at the same time as they run towards me. I hug them as tight as humanly possible.

"Juliette, I missed you." Chloe says.

"I missed you too, Chloe." I answer, pulling out of the hug.

"I missed all of you." Which is true. I did miss David a little bit. I miss 14 year old David. He would have never beaten me, or killed me. I hope, when David dies, his soul turns into his 14 year old self.

"What happened?" Marsa asks. My smiles fades away and I clear my throat.

"I - uh – died. And then I talked to Alisa. And I came back." Everyone was silent. You could hear a pin drop.

"They let me come back because it wasn't my time to die."

"Did you see, uh, Ethan?" Marsa asks. I shake my head.

"I didn't see anyone I recognized except Alisa, but I expect that Ethan is doing just fine up there." Marsa looks somewhat disappointed.

"Oh, okay."

"How about this for a Christmas miracle!" David exclaims happily.

"It's… It's Christmas?" I ask. I make a tsk sound and shake my head.

"You shouldn't have a funeral on Christmas guys. It's defeating the purpose." I scold teasingly. There is an awkward silence.

"So… Now what should we do?"

"Let's go back to the mansion." David suggests.

"Okay, sure." I say.

"The sooner we get out of this tacky room, the better." We all laugh at that. It is a really tacky room. We leave the building which turns out to be an abandoned funeral home. Hm. Wonder how many people they dressed up as clowns before they went of business.

We get into a black car, with David driving, me on the passenger seat, and Chloe and Marsa in the back. Upon request, we listen to My Chemical Romance for the ten minutes it takes to get back to the mansion. This time, though, we take an entrance on the side of the mountain that is actually a lot quicker than the front entrance. I'm starting to think David took us that way when we first got here just to annoy us.

Anyways, for the rest of the day, we laugh and joke and have fun. We exchange gifts (Which David mainly provided) and had an awesome feast in the dining room. After dinner, we all watch 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas' in the movie room. David and I cuddle near the back while Marsa and Chloe sit a few rows ahead of us talking and eating popcorn.

Its times like this that make me wish it could all be real. That David could be my actual boyfriend, not a delusional creep. Because, in all honesty, I did have feelings for David. I still do. But any chances of us being happy together ended on the night that David took Laura. I wish we could all just be friends, not a group of people put together because of a psycho. But unfortunately, that's not how life works.

After the movie's over, Marsa and Chloe leave the movie room, while David and I stay a bit longer. Eventually, David wants to leave, and he makes the mistake of trying to get me up when I'm tired.

"Come on Juliette, we need to get to bed." David whines, yawning loudly.

"No, I'm too comfy." I say, half asleep.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Pretty please with sprinkles on top?"

"No." David sighs.

"Fine, we'll just have to do this the hard way." He says darkly.

"David, what do you mea-" I get cut off when David picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. He walks out of the movie room and into the hallway like I'm a feather.

"David, put me down!" I yell, making him chuckle.

"Make me." I smirk.

"Fine, I will."

I pull up David's shirt to expose his back. I start to trail little kisses down his back, and he shivers. As I'm kissing David, I start to slowly bring my hands down, resting them on his belt.

David can't take it anymore. He rakes me off of his back and kisses me passionately. I giggle and pull away. I smirk at David triumphantly and turn around. Just as I start to walk down the hallway, David grabs my wrist and pulls me back to him.

"You aren't getting away from me that easily, Love." David says. He picks up my legs and dips me down to the ground, kissing me. Then he stands back up and carries me down the hallway bridal style. I bury my head in David's chest, too tired to really care anymore.

David walks up the stairs and down the hallway to his room. David lays me on his bed and changes into a pair of shorts. Then he comes over and lays next to me on the bed, wrapping his arms around my waist. David pulls me closer to him, so I can feel his chest on my back.

"David?" I ask nervously.

"Yeah?" He answers.

"What happened after I fell?"

"As you know, you were almost 20 feet high when you fell. You landed on your head really hard. We took you to a secret hospital for criminals if they or their, uh, 'prisoner' got hurt. You were in a coma for two weeks. Then you woke up briefly before we realized that a piece of broken glass from an ornament had pierced your stomach. The surgeons did the best they could, but your heart stopped mid-surgery and they couldn't restart it. They pronounced you dead an hour later. But, you defied all odds, and came back, and I'm so glad you did." David finishes.

"Wow." I say.

"I'm sorry I made you go through that. I shouldn't have done that."

"Done what?" David asks.

"Die and then come back to life? No, Juliette, you didn't do anything wrong. You made the right decision by coming back. I know these past few months have been rough, but you've made it. You're the girl who lived." I sigh.

"I guess you're right." I say.

"Of course I'm right. Now get some sleep, you need it." As I slowly drift off to sleep, I hear David whisper something in my ear.

"You're the best Christmas present I could ever wish for. I love you." I then fall asleep and dream about the life with David that can never happen.


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Chapter Sixteen**

I wake up the next morning to the sound of David's soft snoring. I open my eyes up to see Ben's face right in front of me. I jump up and hit my head on David's headboard, and Ben laughs.

"Nice one, Juliette." Ben says, chuckling. David stirs in his sleep, and both Ben and I freeze.  
>"Go." I whisper to Ben.<p>

"Meet me after breakfast in the courtyard. Got it?" Ben nods and glitches out. David opens his eyes and looks at me.

"Good morning, Love." He says sleepily.

"Good morning, David. Get up, it's time for breakfast." David groans.

"Can't we just skip breakfast?" He whines.

"No." I say sternly.

"Now get up and get dressed. I'll meet you at the top of the stairs in ten minutes. Got it?"

"Okay, if you say so." David says, sighing. I smile.

"See you later." I get out of David's bed and walk down to my room. As I'm looking in my closet for something to wear, I notice I'm still wearing the funeral dress. I decide to keep it, as it is a really pretty dress. I change into a Pierce The Veil T-shirt and black jeans. I step out of my room and see Marsa come out of her room.

"Hey Marsa." I say.

"Hi Juliette." Marsa responds. There is an awkward silence.

"Well, I got to go make breakfast now. Bye." Marsa hurries down the stares and I furrow my eyebrows. What was that about? She seemed nervous about something. I wonder what.

As I continue to wait for David, Chloe appears at her bedroom door and walks over to me.

"Hey Juliette." Chloe says.

"Hey Chloe."

"I got to go help Marsa make breakfast. See you in a few."

"See you." Chloe walks down the stairs and I sigh. How long is David going to take? After a few more minutes, I get impatient and walk back to David's room. I knock on the door. No answer.

"David, hurry up." I say impatiently. Still nothing. I sigh and tap my foot. _What is taking him so long?_

I finally decide to open the door and see David with his back to me, naked.

"David, hu- Oh my gosh I'm sorry I'll go wait outside!" I say quickly, slamming the door shut. I can feel heat rush to my cheeks as I lean against the door. _I'm so stupid. Of course he was changing! What else would he be doing, traveling through Narnia?_

After a few more minutes of waiting, the door opens and David comes out, a smirk plastered on his face.

"Juliette, if you really wanted me that much, you could have just said so." He says, causing me to blush even more.

"Shut up." I say. We walk down the hallway and down the stairs. We walk into the dining room, hand in hand.

"Good morning, David." Chloe says.

"Good morning, Chloe." He answers, sitting down.

"How are you?"

"I'm okay. I'm kind of excited for New Years in a few days." Oh yeah, New Years is in a few days. I forgot. I guess I was too busy being dead to notice.

After breakfast, I go to the courtyard. I walk through the garden to the pool, where I sit in one of the lounge chairs. Just as I'm starting to relax, I hear a noise behind me. I turn around in my chair and see someone disappear into the garden. I stand up and follow after them, going into the tree section. As I'm looking around at all of the tress and bushes, someone lightly taps my shoulder. I turn around and see Ben standing there, smiling like an idiot. I hug him tightly and he slowly hugs me back.

"Ben, I missed you so much." I cry unto his shoulder, letting all of my emotions about the last few days come out.

"I missed you too, Juliette." Ben answers.

"But you're back now. You came back."

"I came back for you."

And then we kiss, because we both know it's true. When I was talking to Alisa, I realized that it would be better if Chloe and Marsa went up there. They could never rebuild their lives completely, not after what David did to them. But Ben would be stuck on Earth. He can't leave. He'll be trapped on Earth forever, unless someone destroys the game Ben's soul is connected to. He can never leave otherwise. And, he can't just do it himself. He needs help from someone else. And I'm the only one who knows how to help him. I'm the only one willing to even do it, too. That's why I came back. Not for David, not for Marsa, not even for Chloe. I came back for Ben.

After we pull apart, I smile and so does Ben. God, I love Ben's smile. It's so cute!

We talk about random stuff. That's one of the things I love about Ben. We can act like best friends, and be romantic at the same time. I could never have that with David. That relationship is based on David's lust, not love or friendship.

Eventually, I have to go to lunch, so Ben and I bid each other farewell and I reluctantly leave the courtyard. I walk to the dining room and sit down at my usual seat. I'm the first one there. That's strange, since Chloe is usually the first one here.

At that moment, the kitchen door opens and Chloe steps through it. She sits down at the table and there is a moment of silence.

"So, how long have you been helping Marsa with meals?" I ask, breaking the silence.

"After you fell off of the staircase." Chloe responds.

"I needed something to occupy myself from what happened to you, so I asked Marsa if I could help her with meals. She agreed, and I realized how much she needed help since Ethan died. And now, it's just kind of a habit." I nod in understanding.

I was about to ask her if I could help, too, but at that moment, David walks into the dining room.

"Hey Juliette, Chloe."

"Hey David." Both Chloe and I say at the same time.

As we eat, David suggests we should take down the Christmas decorations. So after lunch, we take them all down. Fortunately, no one falls off the stairs this time, and by the time we're done, it's dinnertime. After dinner, I go into my room for some alone time.

Eventually, I decide to change into my pajamas. I change and look in my mirror at my torn up body. Some of the scars that David made have faded away, but the _Always _scar is till as fresh as the first day I saw it. I don't think it will ever go away.

Ben appears behind me and wraps his arm around my waist.

"Hey Ben." I say tiredly.

"Hey Jules." Ben answers. I smile. Ben has finally gotten a pet name for me. I turn around and bury my head in the crook of Ben's neck.

"Will you stay with me tonight?" I ask. Ben shifts uncomfortably.

"Jules, I don't exactly, uh, sleep." Ben says.

"Since I live in a computer, it's really more like power saver mode than anything."

"Please." I beg.

"Just until I fall asleep." Ben sighs and nods reluctantly.

"Okay, fine. But just until you fall asleep." I smile brightly.

"Deal."

We climb under the bed covers facing each other. Ben hesitantly wraps his arms around my waist, and I bury my face in his chest.

"Goodnight Ben." I murmur.

"Goodnight, Jules." Ben answers, kissing the top of my head. As I'm drifting off to sleep, I wish this moment could last forever. Of course, it can't. Everything ends eventually. Happiness, sadness, friendship, life. It all ends.

Sometimes even love.


End file.
